Where did the chemical elements in the Universe come from? What was the nature of the first stars in the Universe? How do massive stars explode? How do low and intermediate-mass stars evolve and contribute to cosmic chemical enrichment? How do stars produce dust and how has that production changed as the Universe has evolved?
Where did the carbon, oxygen, iron and other elements essential to life originate? Primordial element synthesis during the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago created hydrogen and helium. All elements heavier than lithium came from stars. While significant advances have been made toward understanding stellar nucleosynthesis, many critical open questions remain. To make progress on these questions we need to couple state-of-the art theoretical models of stars with observations. This is where this workshop comes in, where we focus on difficult theoretical questions surrounding stellar nucleosynthesis and chemical enrichment, with observations as our key guide. There is true transformative potential here to change our field by the joint efforts of the theoretical and observational communities.
To ensure connectivity between our topics and to maximise discussion and progress we plan to have the following four-week structure: 1) The first stars and the metal-poor universe; 2) Galactic chemical evolution and stellar survey data; 3) Stellar yields from stars; 4) Dust production from stars and stardust grains.
Our goal is to bring together stellar modellers, experts in galactic chemical evolution modelling, cosmochemists, and observers to identify and attack specific problems that still hamper our ability to interpret and explain the chemical make-up of the Universe as traced by stars and galaxies. Our aim is to integrate our understanding of cosmic chemical enrichment into a coherent picture of stellar and galactic physics and to provide a path forward for future experiments, observations and theoretical research.