Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Searching For The Global 21 Cm Cosmic Dawn Absorption Signal With The Long Wavelength Array, Christopher Dilullo

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The redshifted 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen offers one of the best observational probes of Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization. This dissertation presents an effort to detect the redshifted 21 cm signal using the Long Wavelength Array station located on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA (LWA-SV). The major goal is to validate the potential detection reported by the EDGES collaboration. This measurement requires a dynamic range on the order of 10⁵ in order to disentangle the cosmological signal from the Galactic foregrounds. The beamforming capability of LWA-SV is novel to this search. …