Cosmic dawn is one of the least-explored epochs in the history of the Universe illuminated by the very first stars and black holes. One of the potentially powerful probes of cosmic dawn is the predicted 21-cm signal of neutral intergalactic hydrogen. The 21-cm signal is tied to the intensity of radiation generated by the first sources of light, and, thus, can be used to constrain process of primordial star and black hole formation as well as reionization. In my talk I will discuss first observational constraints on this epoch (redshifts z~6-14) established by global 21-cm experiments. Pioneering radio experiments such as EDGES High-Band and SARASII deliver data which are capable of disfavoring large sections of the high-redshift astrophysical parameter space. I will also discuss combined constraints with high-redshift quasars and Lyman Break Galaxies. Finally, I will comment on the claimed discovery of the 21-cm signal from z~17 made with the EDGES Low-Band antenna.

BIO
Currently I am a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Sussex. Before arriving to Sussex I held the prestigious Senior Kavli Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy and Kavli Institute for Cosmology at Cambridge University, the ITC Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics and the Junior Research Chair Fellowship at the International Center for fundamental physics at Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. I have obtained my Ph.D. in November 2013 from the Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

Host: Prof. Yi Mao