Detecting the Cosmic 21 cm Signal with Low-Frequency Radio Astronomy
About
Abstract: 21 cm cosmology – the concept of using radio telescopes to observe the highly redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen on cosmological scales – is a field with tremendous scientific potential. After nearly 20 years of experimental effort, however, a detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) signal remains elusive. The fundamental challenge is a sea of other astrophysical "foreground" emission nearly five orders of magnitude stronger than the signal of interest, although the past two decades have revealed just how much the design of the instrument plays a role in compounding this problem. This talk will review the status of the field, including the lessons learned from a now-concluded first generation of experiments and updates from a second generation of experiments nearing completion. I will particularly emphasize the work being done with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and our efforts to address the worsening challenge of human generated radio-frequency interference
