Dust-obscured star formation has dominated the cosmic history of star formation, since \(z \simeq 4\). However, the recent finding of significant amount of dust in galaxies out to \(z \simeq 8\) has opened the new frontier of investigating the origin of dust also in the earliest phases of galaxy formation, within the first 1.5 billion years from the Big Bang. This is a key and rapid transition phase for the evolution of dust, as galaxy evolutionary timescales become comparable with the formation timescales of dust. It is also an area of research that is experiencing an impressive growth, especially thanks to the recent results from cutting edge observing facilities, ground-based, and in space. Our aim is to provide an overview of the several findings on dust formation and evolution at \(z > 4\), and of the theoretical efforts to explain the observational results. We have organized the review in two parts. In the first part, presented here, we focus on dust sources, primarily supernovae and asymptotic giant branch stars, and the subsequent reprocessing of dust in the interstellar medium, through grain destruction and growth. We also discuss other dust production mechanisms, such as Red Super Giants, Wolf–Rayet stars, Classical Novae, Type Ia Supernovae, and dust formation in quasar winds. The focus of this first part is on theoretical models of dust production sources, although we also discuss the comparison with observations in the nearby Universe, which are key to put constraints on individual sources and processes. While the description has a general applicability at any redshift, we emphasize the relative role of different sources in the dust build-up in the early Universe. In the second part, which will be published later on, we will focus on the recent observational results at \(z > 4\), discussing the theoretical models that have been proposed to interpret those results, as well as the profound implications for galaxy formation.

自\(z \simeq 4\)以来，尘埃遮蔽的恒星形成一直主导着恒星形成的宇宙历史。然而，最近在距\(z \simeq 8\)的星系中发现了大量尘埃，这为研究星系形成的最早阶段（从星系形成之日起的最初 15 亿年内）的尘埃起源开辟了新的领域。大爆炸。这是尘埃演化的关键且快速的过渡阶段，因为星系演化时间尺度与尘埃形成时间尺度相当。这也是一个正在经历令人印象深刻的增长的研究领域，特别是得益于地面和太空尖端观测设施的最新成果。我们的目的是概述关于\(z > 4\)尘埃形成和演化的几项发现，以及解释观测结果的理论努力。我们将审查分为两部分。在此介绍的第一部分中，我们重点关注尘埃源，主要是超新星和渐近巨分支星，以及随后通过颗粒破坏和生长对星际介质中的尘埃进行再处理。我们还讨论了其他尘埃产生机制，例如红超巨星、沃尔夫-拉叶星、经典新星、Ia 型超新星以及类星体风中的尘埃形成。第一部分的重点是尘埃产生源的理论模型，尽管我们也讨论了与附近宇宙观测结果的比较，这是限制单个来源和过程的关键。虽然该描述对任何红移都有普遍适用性，但我们强调不同来源在早期宇宙尘埃堆积中的相对作用。 在稍后发布的第二部分中，我们将重点关注\(z > 4\)的最新观测结果，讨论为解释这些结果而提出的理论模型，以及对星系的形成。