Detecting hydrogen in the early universe using the Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Age (LEDA) telescope

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this program is to measure the signal of hydrogen (HI) 21cm wavelength emission originating during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and redshifted to very low radio frequencies (about 70 MHz). The EoR was a period when new stars and black holes transformed the universe from being largely neutral to being largely ionized, and is one of the last frontiers in the history of the universe yet to be explored. Broader impacts include training of graduate students and postdocs in astronomical instrumentation. In addition, he team will develop open-source, online, active-learning tools using the new technology of Jupyter notebooks served from the Cloud. This will enable presentation of interactive mixed text and graphical materials that execute in browser windows. The technology is potentially applicable to all STEM fields. The investigators will use their own instrument, the Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Age (LEDA), to attempt to detect the HI sky-averaged absorption spectrum from the EoR at redshifts near 20. LEDA is part of a larger instrument called the Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array, located at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in central California.