  The cosmic dark ages are the mysterious epoch during which the pristine gas
began to condense and ultimately form the first stars. Although these
beginnings have long been a topic of theoretical interest, technology has only
recently allowed the beginnings of observational insight into this epoch. Many
questions surround the formation of stars in metal-free gas and the history of
the build-up of metals in the intergalactic medium: (1) What were the
properties of the first stellar and galactic sources to form in pristine
(metal-free) gas? (2) When did the epoch of Population III (metal-free) star
formation take place and how long did it last? (3) Was the stellar initial mass
function dramatically different for the first stars and galaxies? These
questions are all active areas of theoretical research. However, new
observational constraints via the direct detection of Population III star
formation are vital to making progress in answering the broader questions
surrounding how galaxies formed and how the cosmological properties of the
universe have affected the objects it contains.
