Special Astroparticle Seminar

How To See The Dark: Signatures of Strings and Other Things in the 21 cm radiation from high-redshift hydrogen

Óscar Hernández

Marianopolis College / McGill University

Because the physics of the Dark Ages is relatively simple and well understood, any observed deviation from the expected evolution would be a clean signature of new physics. I will discuss this physics and show how the 21 cm line can be used to

1. see cosmic strings, if they exist, and
2. test the assumptions of statistical isotropy of the universe through the matter power spectrum.