A leading astronomer takes readers behind the scenes of the thrilling science of stellar archaeology and explains how sections of the night sky are "excavated" in the hunt for extremely rare, 13-billion-year-old relic stars and how this quest reveals tantalizing new details about the origins and evolution of the cosmos.

The formation of the first stars (Pop III stars) and galaxies is one of the great outstanding challenges in modern astrophysics and cosmology. The first stars are likely key drivers for early cosmic evolution and will be at the center of attention over the next decade. The best available space and ground-based telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope probe the Universe to high redshifts and provide us with tantalizing hints; but they cannot yet directly detect the first generation of stars and the formation of the first galaxies. This is left as key science for future telecopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. This book is based in part on classroom tested lectures related to Pop III stars, but also draws from the author's review articles of the main physical principles involved. The book will thus combine pedagogical introductory chapters with more advanced ones to survey the cutting-edge advances from the frontier of research. It covers the theory of first star formation, the relation between first stars and dark matter, their impact on cosmology, their observational signatures, the transition to normal star formation as well as the assembly of the first galaxies. It will prepare students for interpreting observational findings and their cosmological implications.

"Tells the story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces readers to fundamental concepts and cutting-edge advances in modern astronomy"--From publisher description.

This book provides a comprehensive, self-contained introduction to one of the most exciting frontiers in astrophysics today: the quest to understand how the oldest and most distant galaxies in our universe first formed. Until now, most research on this question has been theoretical, but the next few years will bring about a new generation of large telescopes that promise to supply a flood of data about the infant universe during its first billion years after the big bang. This book bridges the gap between theory and observation. It is an invaluable reference for students and researchers on early galaxies. The First Galaxies in the Universe starts from basic physical principles before moving on to more advanced material. Topics include the gravitational growth of structure, the intergalactic medium, the formation and evolution of the first stars and black holes, feedback and galaxy evolution, reionization, 21-cm cosmology, and more. Provides a comprehensive introduction to this exciting frontier in astrophysics Begins from first principles Covers advanced topics such as the first stars and 21-cm cosmology Prepares students for research using the next generation of large telescopes Discusses many open questions to be explored in the coming decade

The oldest stars in our Galaxy contain crucial information about its formation and the early Universe. Simulations predict that the oldest stars are likely to be located in the central regions of galaxies. Furthermore, nucleosynthetic predictions for the first stars indicate large yields of carbon, suggesting that the oldest stars may be Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars. Studying the chemo-dynamical properties of metal-poor inner Galaxy stars and CEMP stars can illuminate their origins and, in turn, inform our models of first star formation and galaxy evolution. In this dissertation, I complete a three-part survey entitled Chemical Origins of Metal-poor Bulge Stars (COMBS). COMBS I and COMBS III focused on the chemical abundance analysis of ~600 metal-poor stars using VLT/FLAMES spectra, while COMBS II focused on the dynamics of these stars. These studies show evidence that the population that enriched the old metal-poor inner Galaxy stars had a more top-heavy IMF than the typical Milky Way population. Furthermore, my results indicate that secular disk evolution may be more important in early galaxy evolution than previously thought. However, the COMBS survey did not detect any CEMP stars in the inner Galaxy. To investigate this further, I used machine learning to identify an all-sky sample of millions of CEMP stars using Gaia DR3. In addition, my dissertation puts new constraints on the length and pattern speed of the Milky Way's bar by developing a novel orbit integration method which, in turn, improves the precision and accuracy of inner Galaxy dynamical analysis. In total, my dissertation brings new insights into the formation of the Galaxy, especially the bulge, and provided constraints on the formation of the first stars through the chemo-dynamics of ancient stars

Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe's history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There's a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe. This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe's history, known to astrophysicists as the 'Epoch of Reionisation', represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to comets, to moons, and to life itself. Incorporating the very latest research into this branch of astrophysics, this book sheds light on this time of darkness, telling the story of these first stars, hundreds of times the size of the Sun and a million times brighter, lonely giants that lived fast and died young in powerful explosions that seeded the Universe with the heavy elements that we are made of. Emma Chapman tells us how these stars formed, why they were so unusual, and what they can teach us about the Universe today. She also offers a first-hand look at the immense telescopes about to come on line to peer into the past, searching for the echoes and footprints of these stars, to take this period in the Universe's history from the realm of theoretical physics towards the wonder of observational astronomy.