This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project involves experimental and theoretical studies geared toward detection and interpretation of 21-cm neutral hydrogen signatures of the Epoch of Reionization (EOR). The theoretical part of the proposal will quantify how accurately future 21 cm tomography data can constrain the cosmic expansion history and dark energy, the cosmic clustering history and dark matter/neutrino masses, primordial non-Gaussianity, and inflation. The experimental part will study a new concept in this field, a radio telescope with elements on a regular grid that can cut computing requirements significantly by using fast Fourier transforms. This is a highly cost-effective design relative to traditional radio arrays, and the award will fund continued development of a prototype telescope array.
Broader impacts of this proposal include training of underrepresented graduate students, undergraduate student projects, and public outreach featuring high school lectures, popular talks, and articles on cosmology.
