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Register a new userA new MWA limit on the 21 cm Power Spectrum at Redshifts $sim$ 13 $-$ 17
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Added by
Shintaro Yoshiura Dr.
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Observations in the lowest MWA band between $75-100$ MHz have the potential to constrain the distribution of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium at redshift $sim 13-17$. Using 15 hours of MWA data, we analyse systematics in this band such as radio-frequency interference (RFI), ionospheric and wide field effects. By updating the position of point sources, we mitigate the direction independent calibration error due to ionospheric offsets. Our calibration strategy is optimized for the lowest frequency bands by reducing the number of direction dependent calibrators and taking into account radio sources within a wider field of view. We remove data polluted by systematics based on the RFI occupancy and ionospheric conditions, finally selecting 5.5 hours of the cleanest data. Using these data, we obtain two sigma upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum in the range of $0.1lessapprox k lessapprox 1 ~rm ~h~Mpc^{-1}$ and at $z$=14.2, 15.2 and 16.5, with the lowest limit being $6.3times 10^6 ~rm mK^2$ at $rm k=0.14 rm ~h~Mpc^{-1}$ and at $z=15.2$ with a possibility of a few % of signal loss due to direction independent calibration.
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Observations of redshifted 21-cm radiation from neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization (EoR) are considered to constitute the most promising tool to probe that epoch. One of the major goals of the first generation of low frequency radio telescopes is to measure the 3D 21-cm power spectrum. However, the 21-cm signal could evolve substantially along the line of sight (LOS) direction of an observed 3D volume, since the received signal from different planes transverse to the LOS originated from different look-back times and could therefore be statistically different. Using numerical simulations we investigate this so-called light cone effect on the spherically averaged 3D 21-cm power spectrum. For this version of the power spectrum, we find that the effect mostly `averages out and observe a smaller change in the power spectrum compared to the amount of evolution in the mean 21-cm signal and its rms variations along the LOS direction. Nevertheless, changes up to 50% at large scales are possible. In general the power is enhanced/suppressed at large/small scales when the effect is included. The cross-over mode below/above which the power is enhanced/suppressed moves toward larger scales as reionization proceeds. When considering the 3D power spectrum we find it to be anisotropic at the late stages of reionization and on large scales. The effect is dominated by the evolution of the ionized fraction of hydrogen during reionization and including peculiar velocities hardly changes these conclusions. We present simple analytical models which explain qualitatively all the features we see in the simulations.
The EDGES collaboration has reported the detection of a global 21-cm signal with a plateau centered at 76 MHz (i.e., redshift 17.2), with an amplitude of 500^(+200)_(-500) mK. This anomalous measurement does not comport with standard cosmology, which can only accommodate an amplitude < 230 mK. Nevertheless, the line profiles redshift range (15 < z < 20) suggests a possible link to Pop III star formation and an implied evolution out of the `dark ages. Given this tension with the standard model, we here examine whether the observed 21-cm signal is instead consistent with the results of recent modeling based on the alternative Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker cosmology known as the R_h=ct universe, showing that--in this model--the CMB radiation might have been rethermalized by dust ejected into the IGM by the first-generation stars at redshift z < 16. We find that the requirements for this process to have occurred would have self-consistently established an equilibrium spin temperature T_s~3.4 K in the neutral hydrogen, via the irradiation of the IGM by deep penetrating X-rays emitted at the termination shocks of Pop III supernova remnants. Such a dust scenario has been strongly ruled out for the standard model, so the spin temperature (~3.3 K) inferred from the 21-cm absorption feature appears to be much more consistent with the R_h=ct profile than that implied by LCDM, for which adiabatic cooling would have established a spin temperature T_s(z=17.2)~6 K.
The high-redshift 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen is expected to be observed within the next decade and will reveal epochs of cosmic evolution that have been previously inaccessible. Due to the lack of observations, many of the astrophysical processes that took place at early times are poorly constrained. In recent work we explored the astrophysical parameter space and the resulting large variety of possible global (sky-averaged) 21-cm signals. Here we extend our analysis to the fluctuations in the 21-cm signal, accounting for those introduced by density and velocity, Ly$alpha$ radiation, X-ray heating, and ionization. While the radiation sources are usually highlighted, we find that in many cases the density fluctuations play a significant role at intermediate redshifts. Using both the power spectrum and its slope, we show that properties of high-redshift sources can be extracted from the observable features of the fluctuation pattern. For instance, the peak amplitude of ionization fluctuations can be used to estimate whether heating occurred early or late and, in the early case, to also deduce the cosmic mean ionized fraction at that time. The slope of the power spectrum has a more universal redshift evolution than the power spectrum itself and can thus be used more easily as a tracer of high-redshift astrophysics. Its peaks can be used, for example, to estimate the redshift of the Ly$alpha$ coupling transition and the redshift of the heating transition (and the mean gas temperature at that time). We also show that a tight correlation is predicted between features of the power spectrum and of the global signal, potentially yielding important consistency checks.
A proposed method for dealing with foreground emission in upcoming 21-cm observations from the epoch of reionization is to limit observations to an uncontaminated window in Fourier space. Foreground emission can be avoided in this way, since it is limited to a wedge-shaped region in $k_{parallel}, k_{perp}$ space. However, the power spectrum is anisotropic owing to redshift-space distortions from peculiar velocities. Consequently, the 21-cm power spectrum measured in the foreground avoidance window---which samples only a limited range of angles close to the line-of-sight direction---differs from the full spherically-averaged power spectrum which requires an average over emph{all} angles. In this paper, we calculate the magnitude of this wedge bias for the first time. We find that the bias is strongest at high redshifts, where measurements using foreground avoidance will over-estimate the power spectrum by around 100 per cent, possibly obscuring the distinctive rise and fall signature that is anticipated for the spherically-averaged 21-cm power spectrum. In the later stages of reionization, the bias becomes negative, and smaller in magnitude ($lesssim 20$ per cent). The effect shows only a weak dependence on spatial scale and reionization topology.
We introduce simulations aimed at assessing how well weak gravitational lensing of 21cm radiation from the Epoch of Reionization ($z sim 8$) can be measured by an SKA-like radio telescope. A simulation pipeline has been implemented to study the performance of lensing reconstruction techniques. We show how well the lensing signal can be reconstructed using the three-dimensional quadratic lensing estimator in Fourier space assuming different survey strategies. The numerical code introduced in this work is capable of dealing with issues that can not be treated analytically such as the discreteness of visibility measurements and the inclusion of a realistic model for the antennae distribution. This paves the way for future numerical studies implementing more realistic reionization models, foreground subtraction schemes, and testing the performance of lensing estimators that take into account the non-Gaussian distribution of HI after reionization. If multiple frequency channels covering $z sim 7-11.6$ are combined, Phase 1 of SKA-Low should be able to obtain good quality images of the lensing potential with a total resolution of $sim 1.6$ arcmin. The SKA-Low Phase 2 should be capable of providing images with high-fidelity even using data from $zsim 7.7 - 8.3$. We perform tests aimed at evaluating the numerical implementation of the mapping reconstruction. We also discuss the possibility of measuring an accurate lensing power spectrum. Combining data from $z sim 7-11.6$ using the SKA2-Low telescope model, we find constraints comparable to sample variance in the range $L<1000$, even for survey areas as small as $25mbox{ deg}^2$.
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