We present the first complete calculation of the history of the inhomogeneous 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen during the era of the first stars. We use hybrid computational methods to capture the large-scale distribution of the first stars, whose radiation couples to the neutral hydrogen emission, and to evaluate the 21-cm signal from z ~ 15-35. In our realistic picture large-scale fluctuations in the 21-cm signal are sourced by the inhomogeneous density field and by the Ly-alpha and X-ray radiative backgrounds. The star formation is suppressed by two spatially varying effects: negative feedback provided by the Lyman-Werner radiative background, and supersonic relative velocities between the gas and dark matter. Our conclusions are quite promising: we find that the fluctuations imprinted by the inhomogeneous Ly-alpha background in the 21-cm signal at z ~ 25 should be detectable with the Square Kilometer Array.
Measuring the History of Cosmic Reionization using the 21-cm PDF from Simulations
21 cm PDF（即，像素亮度温度的分布）预期在再电离期间是高度非高斯的，并且提供关于密度和电离的分布的重要信息。我们测量的21厘米PDF作为红移的函数在一个大的宇宙再电离模拟，并提出了一个简单的经验拟合。由模拟PDF的指导下，我们进行了极大似然分析的能力，即将进行的实验，以测量的形状的21厘米PDF，并从它的宇宙再电离的历史。在最强的假设下，我们发现即将进行的实验可以测量再电离的中期到后期阶段的再电离历史，精度为1-10%。在一个更灵活的方法，允许在每个红移四个自由参数，类似的精度需要较低的噪音水平的第二代21厘米的实验。
We investigate the constraints on the reionization history of the Universe from a joint analysis of the cosmic microwave background and neutral hydrogen fraction data. The $\tanh$ parametrization and principal component analysis methods are applied to the reionization history respectively. The commonly used $\tanh$ parametrization is oversimplistic when the neutral hydrogen fraction data are taken into account. Using the principal component analysis method, the reconstructed reionization history is consistent with the neutral hydrogen fraction data. With the principal component analysis method…
A new parametrization of the reionization history is presented to facilitate robust comparisons between different observations and with theory. The evolution of the ionization fraction with redshift can be effectively captured by specifying the midpoint, duration, and asymmetry parameters. Lagrange interpolating functions are then used to construct analytical curves that exactly fit corresponding ionization points. The shape parametrizations are excellent matches to theoretical results from radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. The comparative differences for reionization observables are: ioniza…
Cosmic Reionization imprints its signature on the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Advances in CMB telescopes have already placed a significant constraint on the history of reionization. As near-future CMB telescopes target the maximum sensitivity, or observations limited only by the cosmic variance (CV), we hereby forecast the potential of future CMB observations in constraining the history of reionization. In this study, we perform Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis for CV-limited E-mode polarization observations such as the LiteBIRD (Light s…
We reconstruct the history of reionization using Gaussian process regression. Using the UV luminosity data compilation from Hubble Frontiers Fields we reconstruct the redshift evolution of UV luminosity density and thereby the evolution of the source term in the ionization equation. This model-independent reconstruction rules out single power-law evolution of the luminosity density but supports the logarithmic double power-law parametrization. We obtain reionization history by integrating ionization equations with the reconstructed source term. Using optical depth constraint from Planck Cosmic…
It has been recently shown that the astrophysics of reionization can be extracted from the Ly$α$ forest power spectrum by marginalizing the memory of reionization over cosmological information. This impact of cosmic reionization on the Ly$α$ forest power spectrum can survive cosmological time scales because cosmic reionization, which is inhomogeneous, and subsequent shocks from denser regions can heat the gas in low-density regions to $\sim 3\times10^4$ K and compress it to mean-density. Current approach of marginalization over the memory of reionization, however, is not only model-dependent, …
Measuring the X-ray Background in the Reionization Era with First Generation 21 cm Experiments
在再电离时期的X射线背景目前约束不佳。利用21 cm FAST的半数值模拟，计算了21 cm功率谱对X射线背景通量的依赖关系。将信号与Murchison宽场阵列（MWA）的灵敏度进行比较，我们发现，在红移间隔z=8-14中，21 cm信号是基于由当今未分辨的软X射线背景设定的上限可检测的。结果表明，X射线产生效率与Lyman-Alpha产生效率之间不存在简并关系，并且这种简并关系可以被星系际介质电离率所打破。
At cosmic recombination, there was supersonic relative motion between baryons and dark matter, which originated from the baryonic acoustic oscillations in the early universe. This motion has been considered to have a negligible impact on the late stage of cosmic reionization because the relative velocity quickly decreases. However, recent studies have suggested that the recombination in gas clouds smaller than the local Jeans mass ($\lesssim$ $10^8~M_\odot$) can affect the reionization history by boosting the number of ultraviolet photons required for ionizing the intergalactic medium. Motivat…
We explore the constraints on the history of reionization from Planck 2015 Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data and we derive the forecasts for future CMB observations. We consider a class of monotonic histories of reionization as parametrized by two additional extra parameters with respect to the average optical depth used in the instantaneous reionization modeling. We investigate the degeneracies between the history of reionization and selected extensions of the standard cosmological model. In particular, we consider the degeneracies with the total mass of the neutrino sector and we discus…
An emulator for the ionizing photon mean free path in ultra-high resolution simulations: the implications of mean free path measurements for the reionization history
University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；University of California Riverside（加州大学河滨分校）
We present a new investigation of the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) during and after reionization using the Lyman-$α$ forest flux power spectrum at $4.0\lesssim z\lesssim5.2$. Using a sample of 15 high-resolution spectra, we measure the flux power down to the smallest scales ever probed at these redshifts ($-1\lesssim \log(k/$km$^{-1}$s)$\lesssim -0.7$). These scales are highly sensitive to both the instantaneous temperature of the IGM and the total energy injected per unit mass during and after reionization. We measure temperatures at the mean density of $T_{0}\sim7000$-80…
Using Neural Emulators and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to constrain the Epoch of Reionization's History with the Ly$α$ Forest Power Spectrum
University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；Leiden University（莱顿大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）
In this paper, we study the evolution of the ionization fraction $x_e(z)$ during the epoch of reionization by using the dispersion measurements (DMs) of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Different from the previous studies, here we turn to consider the large-scale clustering information of observed DMs of FRB catalog, which only needs the rough redshift distribution, instead of the exact redshift information of each FRB. Firstly, we consider the instantaneous ``\texttt{tanh}'' model for $x_e(z)$ and find that including the auto-correlation information of the mock catalog, about $10^4$ FRBs with the in…
We perform an analysis of the cosmic reionization in the standard cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm and in alternative dark matter scenarios. Building upon the work of Corasaniti et al. (2017), we predict the reionization history for CDM, for warm dark matter (WDM), late-forming dark matter (LFDM) and ultra-light axion dark matter (ADM) models which reproduce state-of-art measurements of the galaxy luminosity function at very high-redshifts $6\le z\le 10$. To this purpose we adopt a reionization model parametrized in terms of the limiting UV-magnitude of galaxies contributing to the reionization…
We constrain the history of reionization using the data from Planck 2015 Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy observations. We also use prior constraints on the reionization history at redshifts $\sim7-8$ obtained from Lyman-$α$ emission observations. Using the free electron fractions at different redshifts as free parameters, we construct the complete reionization history using polynomials. Our construction provides an extremely flexible framework to search for the history of reionization as a function of redshifts. We present a conservative and an optimis…
The Epoch of Reionization (EoR) features a rich interplay between the first luminous sources and the low-density gas of the intergalactic medium (IGM), where photons from these sources ionize the IGM. There are currently few observational constraints on key observables related to the EoR, such as the midpoint and duration of reionization. Although upcoming observations of the 21 cm power spectrum with next-generation radio interferometers such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) are expected to provide information about the midpoint of reioni…
Improved measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization from Planck allows a detailed study of reionization beyond the average optical depth. The lower value of the optical depth disfavours an early onset and an early completion of reionization in favour of a redsfhit range where different astrophysical probes provide sensible information on the sources of reionization and the status of the intergalactic medium. In this work we extend our previous study in which we constrained reionization by combining three different probes - CMB, UV luminosity density and neutral hydrogen fracti…
We consider the prospects of probing features in the primordial power spectrum with future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization measurements. In the scope of the inflationary scenario, such features in the spectrum can be produced by local non-smooth pieces in an inflaton potential (smooth and quasi-flat in general) which in turn may originate from fast phase transitions during inflation in other quantum fields interacting with the inflaton. They can fit some outliers in the CMB temperature power spectrum which are unaddressed within the standard inflationary ${\mathrmΛ}$CDM model. W…
To determine the epoch of reionization precisely and to reveal the property of inhomogeneous reionization are some of the most important topics of modern cosmology. Existing methods to investigate reionization which use cosmic microwave background, Ly$α$ emitters, quasars, or gamma ray bursts, have difficulties in terms of accuracy or event rate. We propose that recently discovered fast luminous blue transients (FLBTs) have a potential as a novel probe of reionization. We study the detectability of FLBTs at the epoch of reionization with upcoming WFIRST Wide-Field Instruments (WFI), using a st…
The discovery of fast radio bursts (FRBs) about a decade ago opened up new possibilities for probing the ionization history of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM). In this paper we study the use of FRBs for tracing the epoch of HeII reionization, using simulations of their dispersion measures. We model dispersion measure contributions from the Milky Way, the IGM (homogeneous and inhomogeneous) and a possible host galaxy as a function of redshift and star formation rate. We estimate the number of FRBs required to distinguish between a model of the Universe in which helium reionization occurred at z …
Redshift-space 21-cm bispectrum multipoles as an SKA-era gravity test in the post-reionization Universe
Indian Statistical Institute（印度统计研究所）；McGill University（麦吉尔大学）；Ciela—Montreal Institute for Astrophysical Data Analysis and Machine Learning（Ciela-蒙特利尔天体物理数据分析与机器学习研究所）
In cosmology, the fine-structure constant can affect the whole ionization history. However, the previous works confine themselves to the recombination epoch and give various strong constraints on the fine-structure constant. In this paper, we also take the reionization epoch into consideration and do a consistency test of the fine-structure constant from the whole ionization history. From the data combination of Planck 2018, BAO data, SNIa samples, SFR density from UV and IR measurements, and the $Q_\text{HII}$ constraints, we find the constraint on the fine-structure constant during the recom…
One of the most promising probes to constrain the reionization history of the universe is the power spectrum of neutral hydrogen 21 cm emission fluctuations. The corresponding analyses require computationally efficient modelling of reionization, usually achieved through semi-numerical simulations. We investigate the capability of one such semi-numerical code, SCRIPT, to constrain the reionization parameters. Our study involves creating a mock data set corresponding to the upcoming SKA-Low, followed by a Bayesian inference method to constrain the model parameters. In particular, we explore in d…
We explore the fundamental limits to which reionization histories can be constrained using only large-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements. The redshift distribution of the fractional ionization $x_e(z)$ affects the angular distribution of CMB polarization. We project constraints on the reionization history of the universe using low-noise full-sky temperature and E-mode measurements of the CMB. We show that the measured TE power spectrum, $\hat C_\ell^\mathrm{TE}$, has roughly one quarter of the constraining power of $\hat C_\ell^\mathrm{EE}$ on the reionization opti…
We discuss the possible origin of the double-peaked profiles recently observed in Lyman-Alpha Emitters (LAEs) at the epoch of reionization ($z \gtrsim 6.5$) from obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN). Combining the extent of the Lyman-$α$ near-zones estimated from the blue peak velocity offset in these galaxies, with the ionizing emissivity of quasars at $z \gtrsim 6$, we forecast the intrinsic UV and X-ray luminosities of the AGN needed to give rise to their double-peaked profiles. We also estimate the extent of the obscuration of the AGN by comparing their luminosities to those of similar qu…
Given that the reionization history of cosmic hydrogen is yet to be stringently constrained, it is worth checking the prospects of doing so using physically motivated models and available observational data. For this purpose, we use an extended version of the explicitly photon-conserving semi-numerical model of reionization, $\texttt{SCRIPT}$, which also includes thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM). The model incorporates the effects of inhomogeneous recombination and radiative feedback self-consistently and is characterized by five free parameters (two for the redshift-depende…
A fundamental requirement for reionizing the Universe is that a sufficient fraction of the ionizing photons emitted by galaxies successfully escapes into the intergalactic medium. However, due to the scarcity of high-redshift observational data, the sources driving reionization remain uncertain. In this work we calculate the ionizing escape fractions ($f_{\rm esc}$) of reionization-era galaxies from the state-of-the-art THESAN simulations, which combine an accurate radiation-hydrodynamic solver AREPO-RT with the well-tested IllustrisTNG galaxy formation model to self-consistently simulate both…
During reionization, neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) imprints a damping wing absorption feature on the spectrum of high-redshift quasars. A detection of this signature provides compelling evidence for a significantly neutral Universe, and enables measurements of the hydrogen neutral fraction $x_{\rm HI}(z)$ at that epoch. Obtaining reliable quantitative constraints from this technique, however, is challenging due to stochasticity induced by the patchy inside-out topology of reionization, degeneracies with quasar lifetime, and the unknown unabsorbed quasar spectrum close to r…
In the post-reionization era, the baryons assembled into the protogalaxies and eventually the present population of the galaxies evolved through merger and evolution. In this work, we discuss a possible probe of the statistical distribution and evolution of the H I density in the post reionization era. We introduce an estimator of the H I power spectrum from the post reionization universe by observing it through the strong gravitational lenses by the nearby galaxy cluster. We also analytically calculate the uncertainties associated with the estimates of the post-EoR power spectrum for the disc…
The ACS LCID project. V. The Star Formation History of the Dwarf Galaxy \objectname[]{LGS-3}: Clues for Cosmic Reionization and Feedback
利用哈勃空间望远镜上的\it高级巡天照相机（\it Advanced Camera for Surveys）获得的深度测光资料，分析了过渡型（dIrr/dSph）本星系群\objectname []{LGS-3}（双鱼座）的恒星形成历史。我们的分析表明，\objectname []{LGS-3}的SFH主要由一个持续时间为$\sim$ 1.4 Gyr的主情节$\sim 11.7$ Gyr所支配，形成了恒星的$\sim 90%$。随后，\objectname []{LGS-3}继续形成恒星，直到现在，尽管速度要低得多。早期化学富集的缺乏与在孤立的dSph星系中观察到的光度相当的情况相反，这意味着dSph星系更大，受到更多的潮汐剥离。我们比较了\objectname []{LGS-3}的SFH与宇宙学模型的预期。大部分或全部的恒星形成都是在再电离时期之后的\objectname []{LGS-3}中产生的，假设再电离时期是在$z\sim6$或$\sim 12.7$ Gyr前完成的。该星系的总质量估计在2到$4\times 10^8$ M $_\odot$之间，对应于28 km\ s $^{-1}$到36 km\ s $^{-1}$之间的圆周速度。这些值接近但略高于30 km\ s $^{-1}$的极限，低于该极限的紫外线背景预计将阻止再电离后的任何恒星形成。来自SNe的反馈与恒星形成的…
