Nuclear Particle Astrophysics (NPA) Seminar: Raul Monsalve, McGill University, “Constraining Cosmic Dawn and Reionization with the Global 21-cm Signal”

Event time: 
Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Wright Lab (WNSL), 216 See map
272 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

I will present the measurement of an absorption feature in the sky-averaged, or global, radio spectrum centered at 78 MHz by the EDGES Low-Band experiment. The measured feature is broadly consistent with the absorption of photons from the microwave background by neutral hydrogen gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) due to significant star formation about 180 million years after the Big Bang. Despite this consistency, the amplitude, shape, and frequency of the feature are in tension with physical predictions for either the temperature of the IGM or the microwave background at those redshifts. In my talk I will describe the EDGES Low-Band measurement, which spans the frequency range 50-100 MHz, carried out from the desert of Western Australia, and some of the proposed physical implications if the signal is verified to be of cosmological origin. I will also present our efforts to constrain standard 21-cm models using EDGES High-Band data spanning 90-190 MHz, independent of the Low-Band detection.