Matt McQuinn, Univ. of California-Berkeley
The Quest to Detect High-Redshift 21cm Radiation and the Physics of the z~20 Universe
Colloquium: The quest to detect high-redshift 21cm radiation and the physics of the z~20 universe
I will summarize the status of searches for intergalactic 21cm radiation from z>6. A few efforts are targeting the 21cm line from the pre-reionization era, z~15-25, an epoch that likely had a larger absolute 21cm brightness temperature than any other era. As a result of this peak in brightness temperature as well as of a newly discovered source of fluctuations, the 21cm radiation from z~15-20 may be easier to detect than this radiation from reionization (z~8) -- the epoch most efforts are targeting. Detecting 21cm radiation from the pre-reionization era would provide direct insights into the formation of the first stars and the reheating of the IGM. I will discuss new analytical and numerical work on the 21cm signal from z~20 that has vast implications for its detectability. Lastly, I will highlight the relevance of z~8 21cm observations to the CCAT telescope.
Host: Martha Haynes
