N-enhancement in GN-z11: First evidence for supermassive stars nucleosynthesis in proto-globular clusters-like conditions at high redshift ?

Abstract

Unusually high N/O abundance ratios were recently reported for a very compact, intensively star-forming object GN-z11 at $z=10.6$ from JWST/NIRSpec observations. We present an empirical comparison with the C, N, and O abundance ratios in Galactic globular clusters (GCs) over a large metallicity range. We show that hot hydrogen-burning nucleosynthesis within supermassive stars (SMS) formed through runaway collisions can consistently explain the observed abundances ratio in GN-z11 and in GCs. This suggests that a proto-globular cluster hosting a SMS could be at the origin of the strong N-enrichment in GN-z11. Our model predicts the behavior of N/O, C/O, and Ne/O ratios as a function of metallicity, which can be tested if high-$z$ objects similar to GN-z11 are detected with JWST in the future. Further studies and statistics will help differentiate the proto-GC scenario from the Wolf-Rayet scenario that we quantify with a population synthesis model, and shed more light on this peculiar object.

Accepted by A&A Letters (revised version; in press)

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