We derive constraints on the thermal and ionization states of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshift approximate to 9.1 using new upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum measured by the LOFAR radio telescope and a prior on the ionized fraction at that redshift estimated from recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. We have used results from the reionization simulation code GRIZZLY and a Bayesian inference framework to constrain the parameters which describe the physical state of the IGM. We find that, if the gas heating remains negligible, an IGM with ionized fraction greater than or similar to 0.13 and a distribution of the ionized regions with a characteristic size greater than or similar to 8 h(-1) comoving megaparsec (Mpc) and a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) greater than or similar to 16 h(-1) Mpc is ruled out. For an IGM with a uniform spin temperature T-S greater than or similar to 3 K, no constraints on the ionized component can be computed. If the large-scale fluctuations of the signal are driven by spin temperature fluctuations, an IGM with a volume fraction less than or similar to 0.34 of heated regions with a temperature larger than CMB, average gas temperature 7-160 K, and a distribution of the heated regions with characteristic size 3.5-70 h(-1) Mpc and FWHM of less than or similar to 110 h(-1) Mpc is ruled out. These constraints are within the 95 per cent credible intervals. With more stringent future upper limits from LOFAR at multiple redshifts, the constraints will become tighter and will exclude an increasingly large region of the parameter space.

In this paper, we use radiative transfer+N-body simulations to explore the feasibility of measurements of cross-correlations between the 21-cm field observed by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and high-z Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) detected in galaxy surveys with the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). 2 lcm-LAE cross-correlations are in fact a powerful probe of the epoch of reionization as they are expected to provide precious information on the progress of reionization and the typical scale of ionized regions at different redshifts. The next generation observations with SKA will have a noise level much lower than those with its precursor radio facilities, introducing a significant improvement in the measurement of the cross-correlations. We find that an SKA-HSC/PFS observation will allow to investigate scales below 10 and similar to 60 h(-1) Mpc at z = 7.3 and 6.6, respectively. WHR,ST will allow to access also higher redshifts, as it is expected to observe spectroscopically similar to 900 LAEs per deg(2) and unit redshi in the range 7.5 <= z <= 8.5. Because of the reduction of the shot noise compared to HSC and PFS, observations with WFIRST will result in more precise cross-correlations and increased observable scales.

Observations of the redshifted 21-cm hyperfine line of neutral hydrogen from early phases of the Universe such as Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization promise to open a new window onto the early formation of stars and galaxies. We present the first upper limits on the power spectrum of redshifted 21-cm brightness temperature fluctuations in the redshift range z = 19.8-25.2 (54-68 MHz frequency range) using 14 h of data obtained with the LOFAR-Low Band Antenna (LBA) array. We also demonstrate the application of a multiple pointing calibration technique to calibrate the LOFAR-LBA dual-pointing observations centred on the North Celestial Pole and the radio galaxy 3C220.3, We observe an unexplained excess of similar to 30-50 per cent in Stokes / noise compared to Stokes V for the two observed fields, which decorrelates on greater than or similar to 12 s and might have a physical origin. We show that enforcing smoothness of gain errors along frequency direction during calibration reduces the additional variance in Stokes I compared Stokes V introduced by the calibration on sub-band level. After subtraction of smooth foregrounds, we achieve a 2 sigma upper limit on the 21-cm power spectrum of Delta(2)(21) < (14561 mK)(2) at k similar to 0.038 h cMpc(-1) and Delta(2)(21) < (14886 mK)(2) at k 0.038 h cMpc(-1) for the 3C220 and NCP fields respectively and both upper limits are consistent with each other. The upper limits for the two fields are still dominated by systematics on most k modes.