No Arabic abstract
The large-scale distribution of neutral hydrogen in the Universe will be luminous through its 21 cm emission. Here, for the first time, we use the auto-power spectrum of 21 cm intensity fluctuations to constrain neutral hydrogen fluctuations at z~0.8. Our data were acquired with the Green Bank Telescope and span the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1 over two fields totalling ~41 deg. sq. and 190 h of radio integration time. The dominant synchrotron foregrounds exceed the signal by ~10^3, but have fewer degrees of freedom and can be removed efficiently. Even in the presence of residual foregrounds, the auto-power can still be interpreted as an upper bound on the 21 cm signal. Our previous measurements of the cross-correlation of 21 cm intensity and the WiggleZ galaxy survey provide a lower bound. Through a Bayesian treatment of signal and foregrounds, we can combine both fields in auto- and cross-power into a measurement of Omega_HI b_HI = [0.62^{+0.23}_{-0.15}] * 10^{-3} at 68% confidence with 9% systematic calibration uncertainty, where Omega_HI is the neutral hydrogen (HI) fraction and b_HI is the HI bias parameter. We describe observational challenges with the present data set and plans to overcome them.
In this letter, 21 cm intensity maps acquired at the Green Bank Telescope are cross-correlated with large-scale structure traced by galaxies in the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. The data span the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1 over two fields totaling ~41 deg. sq. and 190 hours of radio integration time. The cross-correlation constrains Omega_HI b_HI r = [0.43 pm 0.07 (stat.) pm 0.04(sys.)] x 10^-3, where Omega_HI is the neutral hydrogen HI fraction, r is the galaxy-hydrogen correlation coefficient, and b_HI is the HI bias parameter. This is the most precise constraint on neutral hydrogen density fluctuations in a challenging redshift range. Our measurement improves the previous 21 cm cross-correlation at z ~ 0.8 both in its precision and in the range of scales probed.
Using the 21 cm line, observed all-sky and across the redshift range from 0 to 5, the large scale structure of the Universe can be mapped in three dimensions. This can be accomplished by studying specific intensity with resolution ~ 10 Mpc, rather than via the usual galaxy redshift survey. The data set can be analyzed to determine Baryon Acoustic Oscillation wavelengths, in order to address the question: What is the nature of Dark Energy? In addition, the study of Large Scale Structure across this range addresses the questions: How does Gravity effect very large objects? and What is the composition our Universe? The same data set can be used to search for and catalog time variable and transient radio sources.
The 21-cm and Lyman Alpha lines are the dominant line-emission spectral features at opposite ends of the spectrum of hydrogen. Each line can be used to create three dimensional intensity maps of large scale structure. The sky brightness at low redshift due to Lyman Alpha emission is estimated to be 0.4 Jy/Steradian, which is brighter than the zodiacal light foreground.
The 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen (HI) opens a new avenue in our exploration of the Universes structure and evolution. It provides complementary data with different systematics, which aim to improve our current understanding of the $Lambda$CDM model. Among several radio cosmological surveys designed to measure this line, BINGO is a single dish telescope mainly designed to detect Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) at low redshifts ($0.127 < z < 0.449$). Our goal is to assess the capabilities of the fiducial BINGO setup to constrain the cosmological parameters and analyse the effect of different instrument configurations. We will use the 21-cm angular power spectra to extract information about the HI signal and the Fisher matrix formalism to study BINGO projected constraining power. We use the Phase 1 fiducial configuration of the BINGO telescope to perform our cosmological forecasts. In addition, we investigate the impact of several instrumental setups and different cosmological models. Combining BINGO with Planck temperature and polarization data, we project a $1%$ and a $3%$ precision measurement at $68%$ CL for the Hubble constant and the dark energy (DE) equation of state (EoS), respectively, within the wCDM model. Assuming a CPL parametrization, the EoS parameters have standard deviations given by $sigma_{w_0} = 0.30$ and $sigma_{w_a} = 1.2$. We find that BINGO can also help breaking degeneracies in alternative models, which improves the cosmological constraints significantly. Moreover, we can access information about the HI density and bias, obtaining $sim 8.5%$ and $sim 6%$ precision, respectively, assuming they vary with redshift at three independent bins. The fiducial BINGO configuration will be able to extract significant information from the HI distribution and provide constraints competitive with current and future cosmological surveys. (Abridged)
Measurements of the post-reionization 21-cm bispectrum $B_{{rm HI}}(mathbf{k_1},mathbf{k_2},mathbf{k_3})$ using various upcoming intensity mapping experiments hold the potential for determining the cosmological parameters at a high level of precision. In this paper we have estimated the 21-cm bispectrum in the $z$ range $1 le z le 6$ using semi-numerical simulations of the neutral hydrogen (${rm HI}$) distribution. We determine the $k$ and $z$ range where the 21-cm bispectrum can be adequately modelled using the predictions of second order perturbation theory, and we use this to predict the redshift evolution of the linear and quadratic ${rm HI}$ bias parameters $b_1$ and $b_2$ respectively. The $b_1$ values are found to decreases nearly linearly with decreasing $z$, and are in good agreement with earlier predictions obtained by modelling the 21-cm power spectrum $P_{{rm HI}}(k)$. The $b_2$ values fall sharply with decreasing $z$, becomes zero at $z sim 3$ and attains a nearly constant value $b_2 approx - 0.36$ at $z<2$. We provide polynomial fitting formulas for $b_1$ and $b_2$ as functions of $z$. The modelling presented here is expected to be useful in future efforts to determine cosmological parameters and constrain primordial non-Gaussianity using the 21-cm bispectrum.