Radiometer

Physics

Geology

Galaxy

Optics

Astronomy

Programming language

SIGNAL (programming language)

Computer science

Astrophysics

Redshift

Remote sensing

Nature Astronomy

Observations of the 21-cm line from primordial hydrogen promise to be one of the best tools to study the early epochs of the Universe: the dark ages, the cosmic dawn and the subsequent epoch of reionization. In 2018, the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) caught the attention of the cosmology community with a potential detection of an absorption feature in the sky-averaged radio spectrum centred at 78 MHz. The feature is deeper than expected, and, if confirmed, would call for new physics. However, different groups have re-analysed the EDGES data and questioned the reliability of the signal. The Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH) is a sky-averaged 21-cm experiment aiming at improving the current observations by tackling the issues faced by current instruments related to residual systematic signals in the data. The novel experimental approach focuses on detecting and jointly explaining these systematics together with the foregrounds and the cosmological signal using Bayesian statistics. To achieve this, REACH features simultaneous observations with two different antennas, an ultra-wideband system (redshift range about 7.5 to 28) and a receiver calibrator based on in-field measurements. Simulated observations forecast percent-level constraints on astrophysical parameters, potentially opening up a new window to the infant Universe. The Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH) aims to detect the sky-averaged 21-cm neutral hydrogen line from the early Universe by jointly analysing the cosmological signal, foreground emission and systematic effects.

The REACH radiometer for detecting the 21-cm hydrogen signal from redshift z ≈ 7.5–28