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arXiv 1402.0940astro-ph.CO
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宇宙再电离期间宇宙晚期加热的可观测特征

The observable signature of late heating of the Universe during cosmic reionization

Anastasia Fialkov, Rennan Barkana, Eli Visbal

摘要:

再电离时代的模型和模拟预测,氢原子21厘米跃迁的光谱将显示出一个明确的波动峰,分别在红移和标度,标志着再电离的中心阶段和电离气泡的特征尺寸。这是基于这样的假设:宇宙气体被恒星残骸(特别是X射线双星)加热到远高于当时宇宙微波背景的温度(~ 30 K)。在这里,我们表明,而不是硬光谱(即光谱与更多的高能光子比低能光子)的X射线双星使这种加热无效,导致延迟和空间均匀加热,修改21厘米的签名再电离。我们不应该寻找大尺度波动的简单上升和下降(峰值在几毫开尔文),我们必须期待一个更复杂的信号,也具有明显的最小值(小于1毫开尔文),标志着宇宙平均气体温度在微波背景之上的上升。可能使用今天运行的射电望远镜观察该信号,将证明在早期存在硬X射线宇宙背景。

英文摘要:

Models and simulations of the epoch of reionization predict that spectra of the 21-cm transition of atomic hydrogen will show a clear fluctuation peak, at a redshift and scale, respectively, that mark the central stage of reionization and the characteristic size of ionized bubbles. This is based on the assumption that the cosmic gas was heated by stellar remnants - particularly X-ray binaries - to temperatures well above the cosmic microwave background at that time (~ 30 K). Here we show instead that the hard spectra (that is, spectra with more high-energy photons than low-energy photons) of X-ray binaries make such heating ineffective, resulting in a delayed and spatially uniform heating that modifies the 21-cm signature of reionization. Rather than looking for a simple rise and fall of the large-scale fluctuations (peaking at several millikelvin), we must expect a more complex signal also featuring a distinct minimum (at less than a millikelvin) that marks the rise of the cosmic mean gas temperature above the microwave background. Observing this signal, possibly with radio telescopes in operation today, will demonstrate the presence of a cosmic background of hard X-rays at that early time.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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