THE GENERAL RELATIVISTIC INSTABILITY SUPERNOVA OF A SUPERMASSIVE POPULATION III STAR

The formation of supermassive Population III stars with masses greater than or similar to 10,000 M-circle dot in primeval galaxies in strong ultraviolet backgrounds at z similar to 15 may be the most viable pathway to the formation of supermassive black holes by z similar to 7. Most of these stars are expected to live for short times and then directly collapse to black holes, with little or no mass loss over their lives. However, we have now discovered that non- rotating primordial stars with masses close to 55,000 M-circle dot can instead die as highly energetic thermonuclear supernovae powered by explosive helium burning, releasing up to 10(55) erg, or about 10,000 times the energy of a Type Ia supernova. The explosion is triggered by the general relativistic contribution of thermal photons to gravity in the core of the star, which causes the core to contract and explosively burn. The energy release completely unbinds the star, leaving no compact remnant, and about half of the mass of the star is ejected into the early cosmos in the form of heavy elements. The explosion would be visible in the near infrared at z less than or similar to 20 to Euclid and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, perhaps signaling the birth of supermassive black hole seeds and the first quasars.