RSAA Colloquia / Seminars / Feast-of-Facts: Tuesday, 14 November 2023, 11:00-12:00; ZOOM or Duffield Lecture Theatre


Balu Sreedhar

"Hydrogen in the first billion years: Simulating the epoch of reionisation"

The 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen in the early Universe will provide unprecedented information about the first stars and galaxies. Extracting this information, however, requires accounting for various astrophysical processes. Semi-analytical models (SAM) are well-suited for this purpose. In this talk, I will give an introduction to the physics of the Epoch of Reionisation (z ~ 10 - 5) and also the Meraxes SAM. I will then turn to my contributions to Meraxes during my Ph.D. I will conclude with Fisher forecasts on the constraints on the astrophysics (X-ray luminosity, UV escape fraction, star formation rate, and supernova feedback) of the nascent population of galaxies that detection of the 21-cm power spectra will enable.