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Register a new userReionization and the Cosmic Dawn with the Square Kilometre Array
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The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will have a low frequency component (SKA-low) which has as one of its main science goals the study of the redshifted 21cm line from the earliest phases of star and galaxy formation in the Universe. This 21cm signal provides a new and unique window on both the formation of the first stars and accreting black holes and the later period of substantial ionization of the intergalactic medium. The signal will teach us fundamental new things about the earliest phases of structure formation, cosmology and even has the potential to lead to the discovery of new physical phenomena. Here we present a white paper with an overview of the science questions that SKA-low can address, how we plan to tackle these questions and what this implies for the basic design of the telescope.
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Concerted effort is currently ongoing to open up the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) ($zsim$15-6) for studies with IR and radio telescopes. Whereas IR detections have been made of sources (Lyman-$alpha$ emitters, quasars and drop-outs) in this redshift regime in relatively small fields of view, no direct detection of neutral hydrogen, via the redshifted 21-cm line, has yet been established. Such a direct detection is expected in the coming years, with ongoing surveys, and could open up the entire universe from $zsim$6-200 for astrophysical and cosmological studies, opening not only the EoR, but also its preceding Cosmic Dawn ($zsim$30-15) and possibly even the later phases of the Dark Ages ($zsim$200-30). All currently ongoing experiments attempt statistical detections of the 21-cm signal during the EoR, with limited signal-to-noise. Direct imaging, except maybe on the largest (degree) scales at lower redshifts, as well as higher redshifts will remain out of reach. The Square Kilometre Array(SKA) will revolutionize the field, allowing direct imaging of neutral hydrogen from scales of arc-minutes to degrees over most of the redshift range $zsim$6-28 with SKA1-LOW, and possibly even higher redshifts with the SKA2-LOW. In this SKA will be unique, and in parallel provide enormous potential of synergy with other upcoming facilities (e.g. JWST). In this chapter we summarize the physics of 21-cm emission, the different phases the universe is thought to go through, and the observables that the SKA can probe, referring where needed to detailed chapters in this volume (Abridged).
We review how the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will address fundamental questions in cosmology, focussing on its use for neutral Hydrogen (HI) surveys. A key enabler of its unique capabilities will be large (but smart) receptors in the form of aperture arrays. We outline the likely contributions of Phase-1 of the SKA (SKA1), Phase-2 SKA (SKA2) and pathfinding activities (SKA0). We emphasise the important role of cross-correlation between SKA HI results and those at other wavebands such as: surveys for objects in the EoR with VISTA and the SKA itself; and huge optical and near-infrared redshift surveys, such as those with HETDEX and Euclid. We note that the SKA will contribute in other ways to cosmology, e.g. through gravitational lensing and $H_{0}$ studies.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy and spacetime.
One of the five key science projects for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism, in which radio polarimetry will be used to reveal what cosmic magnets look like and what role they have played in the evolving Universe. Many of the SKA prototypes now being built are also targeting magnetic fields and polarimetry as key science areas. Here I review the prospects for innovative new polarimetry and Faraday rotation experiments with forthcoming facilities such as ASKAP, LOFAR, the ATA, the EVLA, and ultimately the SKA. Sensitive wide-field polarisation surveys with these telescopes will provide a dramatic new view of magnetic fields in the Milky Way, in nearby galaxies and clusters, and in the high-redshift Universe.
Upcoming 21cm surveys with the SKA1-LOW telescope will enable imaging of the neutral hydrogen distribution on cosmological scales in the early Universe. These surveys are expected to generate huge imaging datasets that will encode more information than the power spectrum. This provides an alternative unique way to constrain the reionization history, which might break the degeneracy in the power spectral analysis. Using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), we create a fast estimator of the neutral fraction from the 21cm maps that are produced by our large semi-numerical simulation. Our estimator is able to efficiently recover the neutral fraction ($x_{rm HI}$) at several redshifts with a high accuracy of 99% as quantified by the coefficient of determination $R^{2}$. Adding the instrumental effects from the SKA design slightly increases the loss function, but nevertheless we are still able to recover the neutral fraction with a similar high accuracy of 98%, which is only 1 per cent less. While a weak dependence on redshift is observed, the accuracy increases rapidly with decreasing neutral fraction. This is due to the fact that the instrumental noise increases towards high redshift where the Universe is highly neutral. Our results show the promise of directly using 21cm-tomography to constrain the reionization history in a model independent way, complementing similar efforts, such as those of the optical depth measurements from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations by {it Planck}.
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