Star Formation in Clouds of Solid Hydrogen Grains

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Abstract
It is shown that the condensation of hydrogen onto interstellar grains produces a cellular pressure structure in interstellar clouds leading to fragmentation and star formation. The masses of the stars depend on both the gas density and grain abundance. These quantities are calculated for models beginning with a low density and low grain abundance, and in which more grains are produced in late type stars from carbon synthesized in earlier stellar generations. It turns out that in all cases, supermassive objects are formed first. As the density and opacity of the interstellar clouds increase, the masses of the objects decline. As they pass through the mass range of supernovae, there is an outburst of heavy element production followed by the formation of large numbers of dwarf stars over a prolonged period of time. By that time the helium abundance has reached several per cent. Present values of heavy element and grain abundances are obtained if the mass ejected by supernovae contains on average 4.4 per cent heavy elements, and if 23 per cent of the carbon in latetype stars is ejected in the form of graphite grains. The heavy element abundance averaged over all stars is about a fifth of the solar value.

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