Speaker
Description
The Hydrogen Epoch of Re-ionization Array (HERA) is currently under construction in the Karoo region in South Africa with the goal of observing the birth of the first stars and galaxies, and how these cosmic objects subsequently re-ionize the Intergalactic Medium (IGM) during the Epoch of Re-ionization (EoR). It aims to achieve this by observing the (still undetected) redshifted 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen gas found in the IGM. The main challenge in detecting the 21 cm signal is the presence of foregrounds of galactic and extra-galactic origin, which are a few orders of magnitude brighter than the signal itself. The separation of the 21 cm signal from foregrounds is usually limited by systematics and calibration errors. A promising observing metric in detecting the 21 cm signal is the use of the power spectrum of the closure phase, as closure quantities are, to first order independent of these calibration errors. Since closure quantities are not simply proportional to the intensity of the 21 cm signal, interpreting the observed power spectrum of the closure phase requires understanding how it varies as a function of physical parameters that determine the 21 cm signal. This research project is focused on carrying out simulations of the power spectrum of the closure phase as observed by HERA during the EoR, in order to understand how it varies as a function of these physical parameters.
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