EPT Seminar

Date
Mon, Oct 18, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
PSC 3150

Description

Speaker: Julian Munoz, CfA

Title: 21-cm cosmology in 2021

Abstract: I will describe how to use the 21-cm line of hydrogen to learn about cosmology and particle physics. I will begin with an overview of the 21-cm signal during cosmic dawn and reionization, and give an update of the 2021 status of both theory and data. Then I will show three applications of 21-cm data for new physics. First, how to use the depth of the signal to learn about anomalous cooling or heating due to dark-matter interactions, and what the recent HERA measurements tell us about these scenarios. Second, I will show that the timing of this signal can be used to study DM at small scales and determine whether DM is cold, warm, or self interacting. Finally, I will show how 21-cm provides us with a new standard ruler during cosmic dawn, at z=15-20, which will bridge the gap in measurements of the expansion rate H(z) of our universe between the CMB and the local universe, and shed light on potential resolutions to the H0 tension.