Unveiling first light from the infant Universe

Project Information

FIRSTLIGHT

Grant agreement ID: 258942

Project closed

Start date 1 October 2010

End date 30 September 2016

Funded under

• Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 1 500 000,00

EU contribution € 1 500 000,00

Coordinated by

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Netherlands

Objective

I request ERC funding to set up a dedicated science team to detect, for the first time, the redshifted 21-cm radio line emission of neutral hydrogen (HI) with LOFAR coming from the first billion years of the age of the Universe (the Epoch of Reionization and the Dark Ages ).

The study of this pristine neutral hydrogen gas is a rapidly emerging field of astrophysics, both theoretically and observationally. A number of expert international groups in the US/Australia (MWA), China (21CMA), India (GMRT) and the Netherlands (LOFAR) are contending to be the first to detect this hydrogen gas. My proposed ERC project is high-risk and high-gain; however, all risks are controlled and the scientific rewards of detection of neutral hydrogen at these early times would have a tremendous impact and open a new frontier in astronomy. The study of neutral hydrogen, as in the nearby Universe, will revolutionize our knowledge of astrophysical processes in the first phases of the Universe, just after recombination.

The LOFAR Epoch-of-Reionization Key-Science Project (LOFAR EoR-KSP), of which I am a PI, aims to be the first, and if being the first fails, to provide the best detection of this neutral HI gas. Indeed, we are in a very good starting position to reach both goals. Our team has access to the most sensitive telescope available for these studies (LOFAR) and leads a Key Science Project with guaranteed observing time. Our KSP is rapidly ramping up to the observational phase of the project (2010), and now more than ever requires dedicated scientists that together in a small team maximize the scientific return of the project (i.e. detect and study HI). If successful, our research team would be in a position to start leading similar projects with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). It is crucial that we gear up for the use of that future instrument and retain Europe s position at the forefront of astrophysics and radio astronomy.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• natural sciences › physical sciences › astronomy › observational astronomy › radio astronomy
• natural sciences › physical sciences › astronomy › astrophysics

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Programme(s)

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• ERC-SG-PE9 - ERC Starting Grant - Universe sciences

Call for proposal

ERC-2010-StG_20091028
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN

• EU contribution: € 1 500 000,00
• Address: Broerstraat 5 ; 9712CP Groningen ; Netherlands
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: No data

Beneficiaries (1)

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN

Netherlands

• EU contribution: € 1 500 000,00
• Address: Broerstraat 5 ; 9712CP Groningen
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: No data