Observation of the 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization with LOFAR and other Recent Developments

Leon Koopmans (Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Groningen, Netherlands)

August 29, 2018

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Abstract: Detection of the 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (EoR) promises a new avenue to study the physical processes of early star and galaxy formation during the first billion years of the universe. These eras form the foundation of our present-day universe. Such a detection has been exceedingly hard with all current interferometers, and has not yet been achieved. However, steady progress is being made. I will give a overview of the current status of the LOFAR EoR Key Science project to detect this 21-cm signal and the challenges that it and other similar projects are facing. I will show that considerable progress has been made in the last year(s), but that not all challenges have yet been met. I will end by introducing two new and exiting projects that we recently started focussing on observations the Cosmic Dawn with LOFAR (ACE), inspired by the global 21-cm EDGES results, and the Dutch-Chinese NCLE instrument, currently in lunar L2, aiming to observe the 21-cm signal from the Dark Ages.