Detecting the deaths of the first stars: Investigating the physical processes in the early Universe

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This project will pursue the most distant supernova explosions in the Universe and investigate their host galaxies and environments. It will use a technique that has detected the most distant supernovae, probing 12 billion years into the past, and one that is able to discover, for the first time, the deaths of the first stars to have formed after the Big Bang. This project will use this technique to gather a statistical sample of supernovae to determine their occurrence rate and physical properties and to provide crucial data for a newly discovered, extremely powerful, third type of supernova. This data will test the laws in which early galaxies formed their stars and reveal the framework for the subsequent evolution of the Universe.