Please join us for an informal seminar sponsored by the Atomic and
Molecular Physics Division, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
(Complete schedule at
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/amp/events.html)
2:00 PM Monday May 16, 2011
Phillips Auditorium
60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Constraining the dawn of cosmic structure
and the epoch of reionization with the 21 cm line
Jonathan Pritchard
Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
The first billion years of the Universe contains the formation of the
first galaxies and reionization. This period lies beyond the current
observational frontier presenting challenges to theory and
observation. Hydrogen provides one of the best tracers of the major
events during this epoch. Low frequency observations of the
redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen will be key in developing
our understanding of this period. In this talk, I will describe two
aspects of the 21 cm signal from the period of "cosmic dawn": the
global 21 cm signal and 21 cm fluctuations. I will discuss what can
be learnt about the first galaxies and reionization from this
technique and explore some of the challenges and opportunities ahead
for the first observations.
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