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We present a new near-field cosmological probe of the initial mass function(IMF) of the first stars. Specifically, we constrain the lower-mass limit ofthe Population III (Pop III) IMF with the total number of stars in large,unbiased surveys of the Milky Way. We model the early star formation history ina Milky Way-like halo with a semi-analytic approach, based on Monte-Carlosampling of dark matter merger trees, combined with a treatment of the mostimportant feedback mechanisms. Assuming a logarithmically flat Pop III IMF andvarying its low mass limit, we derive the number of expected survivors of thesefirst stars, using them to estimate the probability to detect any such Pop IIIfossil in stellar archaeological surveys. Following our analysis, the mostpromising region to find possible Pop III survivors is the stellar halo of theMilky Way, which is the best target for future surveys. We find that if nogenuine Pop III survivor is detected in a sample size of $4 \times 10^6$ ($2\times 10^7$) halo stars with well-controlled selection effects, then we canexclude the hypothesis that the primordial IMF extended down below $0.8M_\odot$ at a confidence level of 68% (99%). With the sample size of theHamburg/ESO survey, we can tentatively exclude Pop III stars with masses below$0.65 M_\odot$ with a confidence level of 95%, although this is subject tosignificant uncertainties. To fully harness the potential of our approach,future large surveys are needed that employ uniform, unbiased selectionstrategies for high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up.

Constraining the primordial initial mass function with stellar archaeology