The 21-cm absorption profile is detected in the sky-averaged radio spectrum, but is much stronger than predicted, suggesting that the primordial gas might have been cooler than predicted. As the first stars heated hydrogen in the early Universe, the 21-cm hyperfine line—an astronomical standard that represents the spin-flip transition in the ground state of atomic hydrogen—was altered, causing the hydrogen gas to absorb photons from the microwave background. This should produce an observable absorption signal at frequencies of less than 200 megahertz (MHz). Judd Bowman and colleagues report the observation of an absorption profile centred at a frequency of 78 MHz that is about 19 MHz wide and 0.5 kelvin deep. The profile is generally in line with expectations, although it is deeper than predicted. An accompanying paper by Rennan Barkana suggests that baryons were interacting with cold dark-matter particles in the early Universe, cooling the gas more than had been expected. After stars formed in the early Universe, their ultraviolet light is expected, eventually, to have penetrated the primordial hydrogen gas and altered the excitation state of its 21-centimetre hyperfine line. This alteration would cause the gas to absorb photons from the cosmic microwave background, producing a spectral distortion that should be observable today at radio frequencies of less than 200 megahertz1. Here we report the detection of a flattened absorption profile in the sky-averaged radio spectrum, which is centred at a frequency of 78 megahertz and has a best-fitting full-width at half-maximum of 19 megahertz and an amplitude of 0.5 kelvin. The profile is largely consistent with expectations for the 21-centimetre signal induced by early stars; however, the best-fitting amplitude of the profile is more than a factor of two greater than the largest predictions2. This discrepancy suggests that either the primordial gas was much colder than expected or the background radiation temperature was hotter than expected. Astrophysical phenomena (such as radiation from stars and stellar remnants) are unlikely to account for this discrepancy; of the proposed extensions to the standard model of cosmology and particle physics, only cooling of the gas as a result of interactions between dark matter and baryons seems to explain the observed amplitude3. The low-frequency edge of the observed profile indicates that stars existed and had produced a background of Lyman-α photons by 180 million years after the Big Bang. The high-frequency edge indicates that the gas was heated to above the radiation temperature less than 100 million years later.

An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum

The techniques and technologies currently being investigated to detect weapons and contraband concealed on persons under clothing are reviewed. The basic phenomenology of the atmosphere and materials that must be understood in order to realize such a system are discussed. The component issues and architectural designs needed to realize systems are outlined. Some conclusions with respect to further technology developments are presented.

Standoff Detection of Weapons and Contraband in the 100 GHz to 1 THz Region

Author(s): DeBoer, David R; Parsons, Aaron R; Aguirre, James E; Alexander, Paul; Ali, Zaki S; Beardsley, Adam P; Bernardi, Gianni; Bowman, Judd D; Bradley, Richard F; Carilli, Chris L; Cheng, Carina; Acedo, Eloy de Lera; Dillon, Joshua S; Ewall-Wice, Aaron; Fadana, Gcobisa; Fagnoni, Nicolas; Fritz, Randall; Furlanetto, Steve R; Glendenning, Brian; Greig, Bradley; Grobbelaar, Jasper; Hazelton, Bryna J; Hewitt, Jacqueline N; Hickish, Jack; Jacobs, Daniel C; Julius, Austin; Kariseb, MacCalvin; Kohn, Saul A; Lekalake, Telalo; Liu, Adrian; Loots, Anita; MacMahon, David; Malan, Lourence; Malgas, Cresshim; Maree, Matthys; Martinot, Zachary; Mathison, Nathan; Matsetela, Eunice; Mesinger, Andrei; Morales, Miguel F; Neben, Abraham R; Patra, Nipanjana; Pieterse, Samantha; Pober, Jonathan C; Razavi-Ghods, Nima; Ringuette, Jon; Robnett, James; Rosie, Kathryn; Sell, Raddwine; Smith, Craig; Syce, Angelo; Tegmark, Max; Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan; Williams, Peter K. G; Zheng, Haoxuan

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/129/974/045001/pdf

Hydrogen epoch of reionization array (HERA)

The Murchison Widefield Array is a dipole-based aperture array synthesis telescope designed to operate in the 80-300 MHz frequency range. It is capable of a wide range of science investigations but is initially focused on three key science projects: detection and characterization of three-dimensional brightness temperature fluctuations in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization (EoR) at redshifts from six to ten; solar imaging and remote sensing of the inner heliosphere via propagation effects on signals from distant background sources; and high-sensitivity exploration of the variable radio sky. The array design features 8192 dual-polarization broadband active dipoles, arranged into 512 ldquotilesrdquo comprising 16 dipoles each. The tiles are quasi-randomly distributed over an aperture 1.5 km in diameter, with a small number of outliers extending to 3 km. All tile-tile baselines are correlated in custom field-programmable gate array based hardware, yielding a Nyquist-sampled instantaneous monochromatic uv coverage and unprecedented point spread function quality. The correlated data are calibrated in real time using novel position-dependent self-calibration algorithms. The array is located in the Murchison region of outback Western Australia. This region is characterized by extremely low population density and a superbly radio-quiet environment, allowing full exploitation of the instrumental capabilities.

/pdf/the-murchison-widefield-array-design-overview-1op0axbp6l.pdf

The Murchison Widefield Array: Design Overview

Cooperating Organizations American Astronomical Society (United States) • Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) (Netherlands) • Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation (United States) Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) (Canada) • European Astronomical Society (Switzerland) • ESO—European Southern Observatory (Germany) • International Astronomical Union • Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) (Republic of Korea) • National Radio Astronomy Observatory • POPSud (France) • TNO (Netherlands)

/pdf/ground-based-and-airborne-telescopes-iii-2e6sjio423.pdf

Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III

The kilopixel array pathfinder project (KAPPa): A 16 pixel 660 GHz pathfinder instrument with an integrated heterodyne focal plane detector

We report on the development of SuperCam , a 64 pixel, superheterodyne camera designed for operation in the astrophysically important 870 μm atmospheric window. SuperCam will be used to answer fundamental questions about 
the physics and chemistry of molecular clouds in the Galaxy and their direct relation to star and planet formation. The 
advent of such a system will provide an order of magnitude increase in mapping speed over what is now available and 
revolutionize how observational astronomy is performed in this important wavelength regime. 
Unlike the situation with bolometric detectors, heterodyne receiver systems are coherent, retaining information about 
both the amplitude and phase of the incident photon stream. From this information a high resolution spectrum of the 
incident light can be obtained without multiplexing. SuperCam will be constructed by stacking eight, 1×8 rows of fixed 
tuned, SIS mixers. The IF output of each mixer will be connected to a low-noise, broadband MMIC amplifier integrated 
into the mixer block. The instantaneous IF bandwidth of each pixel will be ~2 GHz, with a center frequency of 5 GHz. 
A spectrum of the central 500 MHz of each IF band will be provided by the array spectrometer. Local oscillator power 
is provided by a frequency multiplier whose output is divided between the pixels by using a matrix of waveguide power 
dividers. The mixer array will be cooled to 4K by a closed-cycle refrigeration system. SuperCam will reside at the 
Cassegrain focus of the 10m Heinrich Hertz telescope (HHT). A prototype single row of the array will be tested on the 
HHT in 2006, with the first engineering run of the full array in late 2007. The array is designed and constructed so that 
it may be readily scaled to higher frequencies.

/pdf/supercam-a-64-pixel-heterodyne-imaging-array-for-the-870-4hy1zyg6t6.pdf

SuperCam, a 64-pixel heterodyne imaging array for the 870 micron atmospheric window

This letter presents an ultra-low loss cryogenically-coolable lumped element high pass filter and the measurement method of its S parameters and noise temperature at cryogenic temperature. This filter is going to be used in RFI mitigation of FAST wideband single pixel receiver. It adopts 5 poles Chebyshev high pass structure, and ultra-low loss lumped elements are employed. At cryogenic temperature, its 3 dB cutoff frequency is 248 MHz and the high-end of passband with ultra-low insertion loss is up to 3.5 GHz. Specially, the novel mechanical and microwave design ensure effectively cryogenic cooling to all components of the filter. This filter can be operated at temperatures of 300-4 K. S parameters are measured at room and cryogenic temperatures. At 26 K, its insertion loss in passband is smaller than 0.1 dB. A direct measurement to noise temperature at 24 K physical temperature is performed in cryogenic Testing Dewar, and noise temperature smaller than 0.55 K is achieved. The stopband rejection at 95 MHz is larger than 43 dB. In passband, the return loss of 2 ports is larger than 23 dB.

Ultra-low loss lumped element cryogenic coolable high pass filter and cryogenic measurement method

A low power two-stage InP HEMT MMIC amplifier has been developed. The amplifier utilizes 0.12 ?m T-gate InP HEMTs with 2×25 ?m gate periphery. This compact microstrip MMIC is only 1.5 mm2 in size. It exhibits gain of 12.5±1 dB at 15 mW of dissipated power over an operating range from 1 to 50 GHz. The gain-bandwidth/dissipation figure of merit is 40 dB GHz/mW. The average noise figure is 3 to 3.8 dB over the Ka band.

/pdf/ultra-broadband-low-power-mmic-amplifier-4kw6qw8bmy.pdf

Ultra Broadband Low Power MMIC Amplifier

A satellite communication system suitable for distribution of local oscillator reference signals for a widely spaced microwave array has been developed and tested experimentally. The system uses a round-trip correction method to remove effects of atmospheric fluctuations and radial motion of the satellite. This experiment was carried out using Telstar-5, a commercial Ku-band geostationary satellite. A typical Ku-band satellite has uplink and downlink capacity at 14– 14.5 GHz and 11.7–12.2 GHz, respectively. For this initial experiment, both earth stations were located at the same site to facilitate direct comparison of the received signals. The local oscillator reference frequency was chosen to be 300 MHz and was sent as the difference between two Ku-band tones. The residual error after applying the round trip correction has been measured to be better than 3 ps for integration times ranging from 1 to 2000 s. For integration times greater than 500 s, the system outperforms a pair of hydrogen masers with the limitation believed to be ground-based equipment phase stability. The idea of distributing local oscillators using a geostationary satellite is not new; several researchers experimented with this technique in the eighties, but the achieved accuracywas 3 to 100 times worse than the present results. Since then, the cost of both leased satellite bandwidth and the Ku-band ground equipment has dropped substantially and the performance of various components has improved. An important factor is the availability of narrow bands which can be leased on a communications satellite. We lease three 100 kHz bands at approximately one hundredth the cost of a full 36 MHz-wide transponder. Further tests of the system using terminals separated by large distances and comparison tests with two hydrogen masers and radio interferometry of astronomical objects are needed.

Sander Weinreb

Papers

The kilopixel array pathfinder project (KAPPa): A 16 pixel 660 GHz pathfinder instrument with an integrated heterodyne focal plane detector

SuperCam, a 64-pixel heterodyne imaging array for the 870 micron atmospheric window

Ultra-low loss lumped element cryogenic coolable high pass filter and cryogenic measurement method

Ultra Broadband Low Power MMIC Amplifier

Local Oscillator Distribution Using a Geostationary Satellite