The First Stars and the Chemical Enrichment of the Universe

The chemical abundances of the first stars bear the signature of conditions at the earliest times - during the Big Bang and the formation of the first astrophysical objects. This proposal assembles a world-class team to discover and analyze significant numbers of the most metal-poor and oldest stars in our Galaxy. We shall develop innovative techniques to analyze the spectra of these objects to obtain accurate abundances - not currently achievable. The project will clarify our understanding of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the first supernovae and hypernovae, the manner in which Galactic chemical enrichment occurred, and the age of the Galaxy.