CHIME - the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

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Among the great surprises of modern cosmology was the discovery of Dark Energy, which dominates the energy budget of the Universe and is driving the acceleration of its expansion rate. Decyphering its properties and nature will require novel measurements spanning vast swaths of the observable Universe. In this talk, I will introduce the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), an ambitious project to study Dark Energy by tracing out 4 billion years of cosmic history, using a purpose-built radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.

CHIME is a transit interferometer with no moving parts, which uses a massive computing backend to image the radio sky from 400-800MHz, corresponding to 21cm radiation emanating from a redshift range of 0.8 < z < 2.5. Earth rotation sweeps its field of view across the sky, resulting in complete daily coverage of the northern celestial hemisphere and an unprecedented survey sensitivity. I will discuss the motivation, construction, and status of CHIME, as well as a pair of extensions which probe the high-cadence time-domain radio sky, monitoring radio pulsars and exploring a more recent mystery in radio astronomy, Fast Radio Bursts. Looking forward, I will present the technology path towards adding FRB localization capabilities to CHIME, and the new wide-band CHORD telescope, presently under development in Canada.