Fundamental Physics at 21 cm

30 Mar 2020, 12:00 → 2 Apr 2020, 14:00 Europe/Rome

Lecture Hall D (Trieste IFPU)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Due to the developing situation with the Covid-19 in Italy, we have decided to postpone the workshop “Fundamental physics at 21 cm” to a future date to be arranged, possibly next fall.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any question or concern. 

 

Monday 30 March

12:00 → 12:15 Welcome

14:00 → 15:15 An Absorption Feature in Observations with EDGES Mid-Band

I will present results from observations with the EDGES Mid-Band system. This instrument measured in 2018 the sky-averaged radio spectrum in the range ~60-120 MHz. It used a blade antenna that is ~30% smaller than the Low-Band antennas used for the measurements in Bowman et al. (2018). Despite the smaller antenna, in the Mid-Band spectrum we identify an absorption feature that is consistent with our Low-Band result. This consistency increases the confidence that this feature is not an instrumental artifact but instead a spectral property of the sky. In my talk I will describe the Mid-Band observations, instrument calibration, data modelling, and characteristics of the Mid-Band absorption signal.

Speaker: Prof. Raul Monsalve (Department of Physics and McGill Space Institute McGill University)

15:15 → 16:30 Dark Matter in Light of the 21cm EDGES Signal

Speaker: Prof. Kovetz Ely (Ben Gurion Univ. )

16:30 → 17:00 coffee break

17:00 → 18:15 Complementarity of CMB and 21cm for the study of dark matter properties and exotic reionization

In this talk, I will review how the CMB and 21cm can be used to study dark matter (DM) properties, as well as sources of exotic (early) reionization. I will first discuss how the CMB can provide strong constraints on scattering between DM and baryons, and probe the parameter space suggested by the EDGES anomaly. I will then introduce models that could reconcile the EDGES anomaly while being consistent with CMB observations. Secondly, I will explain how the CMB can be used to probe the existence of extra sources of ionization and heating, and compare existing constraints to what future 21cm experiment could do. I will also discuss the status in the Planck 2018 data of a hint for early exotic reionization originally suggested in earlier Planck release.

Speaker: Prof. Vivian Poulin (Montpellier Univ. )

Tuesday 31 March

09:30 → 10:45 Neutrinos at 21 cm

Speaker: Prof. Silvia Pascoli (Durham University )

10:45 → 11:15 coffee break

11:15 → 12:30 TBA

Speaker: Prof. Maria Archidiacono (Bologna Univ. )

14:00 → 15:30 BSM Pitching Session

Short contributions (~ about 20 minutes) and discussion

14:00 TBA

Speaker: Prof. Laura Lopez-Honorez (Brussels Univ)

14:30 TBA

Speaker: Dr Sam Witte (Valencia Univ.)

15:00 Discussion session

15:30 → 16:00 coffee break

16:00 → 17:00 Colloquium

Speaker: Prof. Lesgourgues Julien (RWTH Aachen U.)

Wednesday 1 April

09:30 → 10:45 TBA

Speaker: Prof. Saleem Zaroubi (University of Groningen)

10:45 → 11:15 coffee break

11:15 → 12:30 Modeling the 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn

The birth of the first stars, black holes and galaxies heralded the end of the cosmic Dark Ages and the beginning of the Cosmic Dawn. The light from these objects heated and ionized almost every atom in existence, culminating in the Epoch of Reionization: the final major phase change of the Universe. This final frontier of astrophysical cosmology is undergoing a transition from an observationally-starved epoch to a "Big Data" field. This process is set to culminate with upcoming Square Kilometre Array interferometric observations of the redshifted 21-cm line: providing a 3D map of the first billion years of our Universe. With the SKA, we will be able to actually study the UV and X-ray properties of the first galaxies, as well as physical cosmology, which are encoded in the large-scale structure of the 21-cm signal.
I will review the current status of observations of the EoR and Cosmic Dawn, before discussing the main challenges in modeling the 21-cm signal: a huge range of relevant scales and a large parameter space of astrophysical uncertainties. I will review how simulations have adapted to address these challenges. Finally, I will introduce a Bayesian forward-modeling framework capable of on-the-fly sampling of 3D simulations, allowing us to simultaneously infer the properties of the unseen first galaxies and physical cosmology encoded in the 21-cm signal.

Speaker: Prof. Andrei Mesinger (Scuola Normale Superiore)

14:00 → 15:30 Experimental Challenges at 21 cm

14:00 TBA

Speaker: Prof. Gianni Bernardi (INAF)

14:30 TBA

Speaker: Dr Marta Spinelli (INAF)

15:00 Discussion session

15:30 → 16:00 coffee break

Thursday 2 April

09:30 → 10:45 BSM Pitching Session

Short contributions (~ about 20 minutes) and discussion

09:30 TBA

Speaker: Dr Hongwan Liu (NYU-Princeton)

10:00 Discussion session

10:45 → 11:15 coffee break

11:15 → 12:30 BSM Pitching Session

Short contributions (~ about 20 minutes) and discussion

11:15 TBA

Speaker: Dr Anastasia Sokolenko (Vienna Univ. )

11:45 Discussion session