You are cordially invited to a Colloquium by Prof Xuelei Chen (China) on Discovering the Sky at long wavelength (DSL) project.
Abstract
After the Big Bang, the Universe entered the so called dark ages, during which structures grow until the first generation of stars, galaxies and black holes formed. The 21cm line of the neutral hydrogen provides a unique probe to the dark ages and cosmic dawn. However, observing the dark age is extremely difficult, not only because there is huge foreground radiation, but because the ionosphere of Earth absorbs and distorts the low frequency radio signal. In fact, the radio band below 30 MHz is the last largely unexplored part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
In this talk, Prof Xuelei will present the Discovering Sky at the Longest wavelength (DSL) project, also known as Hongmeng (primordial Universe in Chinese) project, which aims to unveil the sky at this low frequency and probe the cosmic dawn and dark ages by using an array of microsatellites on lunar orbit. After introducing the conceptual design, he will also discuss the progress in solving the key technological problems, and the various science cases enabled by such observations.
About speaker
Xuelei Chen (National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science) Xuelei Chen received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1999, he did postdoctoral work at the Ohio State University and UCSB before joining the NAOC as a faculty member in 2004. Currently he is the head of the Cosmic Dark Matter and Dark Energy Research Group of NAOC, a specially appointed professor of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has a joint appointment as the Changjiang chair professor at the Northeast University. He works on cosmology, radio astronomy and particle astrophysics, and has coauthored more than 200 research papers. He is the PI of the DSL project and the Tianlai Project (Dark Energy Radio Detection Key Technology Study).
For more information, kindly contact Prof Amare Abebe.