Evolution of massive stars at very low metallicity, including rotation and binary interactions

We discuss recent models of the evolution of massive stars at very low metallicity, including the effects of rotation, magnetic fields and binarity. Very metal poor stars lose very little mass and angular momentum during their main sequence evolution, and rotation plays a dominant role in their evolution. In rapidly rotating massive stars, the rotationally induced mixing time scale can be even shorter than the nuclear time scale throughout the main sequence. The consequent quasi-chemically homogeneous evolution greatly differs from the standard massive star evolution that leads to formation of red giants with strong chemical stratification. Interesting outcomes of such a new mode of evolution include the formation of rapidly rotating massive Wolf-Rayet stars that emit large amounts of ionizing photons, the formation of long gamma-ray bursts and hypernovae, and the production of large amounts of primary nitrogen. We show that binary interactions can further enhance the effects of rotation, as mass accretion in a close binary spins up the secondary.