Reionization and the Cosmic Dawn with the Square Kilometre Array

TL;DR

The paper discusses how the Square Kilometre Array's low-frequency component will study the 21cm line to explore the Universe's earliest star formation, black holes, and reionization, offering new insights into cosmology.

Contribution

It provides an overview of science goals, challenges, and design considerations for SKA-low to investigate the Cosmic Dawn and reionization.

Findings

SKA-low will observe the redshifted 21cm line from early Universe epochs.

The study will shed light on the formation of first stars and black holes.

It will improve understanding of the Universe's reionization history.

Abstract

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.