Speaker
Description
Direct detection of the Epoch of Reionization via the redshifted 21-cm line will have unprecedented implications on the study of structure formation in the early Universe. This exciting goal is challenged by the difficulty of extracting the feeble 21-cm signal buried under bright astrophysical foregrounds and contaminated by numerous systematics. The LOFAR-EoR project has recently made considerable progress in this direction. We have now published the deepest upper limit on the signal power spectrum at redshift 9, which has made it possible to set a few constraints on the physics of the IGM during the EoR. We are also making progress towards a deep upper limit at multiple redshifts. In this talk, I will present our new upper limits with a focus on the latest developments in instrument calibration and foreground suppression that have enabled these progresses.
