Antenna Design and Optimisation of the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen

The Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH) is a new project to perform radiometric measurements in the 50–200 MHz frequency range, with the purpose of realising a confident detection of the red-shifted 21 cm line signature pertaining to the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) and Cosmic Dawn (CD). The brightness temperature of this signal is several orders of magnitude lower than those of the galactic and extra-galactic foregrounds, necessitating a radiometer design that is capable of extracting the 21 cm signal with minimal distortion due to systematic effects in the receiver instrumentation. The REACH project is an international collaboration between numerous research institutions, with prototype deployment for late 2019 planned in the Karoo region of South Africa.