  The thermal and chemical evolution of gravitationally collapsing protostellar
clouds is investigated, focusing attention on their dependence on metallicity.
Calculations are carried out for a range of metallicities spanning the local
interstellar value to zero. During the time when clouds are transparent to
continuous radiation, the temperatures are higher for those with lower
metallicity, reflecting lower radiative ability. However, once the clouds
become opaque, in the course of the adiabatic contraction of the transient
cores, their evolutionary trajectories in the density-temperature plane
converge to a unique curve that is determined by only physical constants. The
trajectories coincide with each other thereafter. Consequently, the size of the
stellar core at the formation is the same regardless of the gas composition of
the parent cloud.
