Studying the sources of cosmic reionization with 21-cm fluctuations
- Creators
- Barkana, Rennan
Abstract
We explore the ability of measurements of the 21-cm power spectrum during reionization to enable the simultaneous reconstruction of the reionization history and the properties of the ionizing sources. For various sets of simulated 21-cm observations, we perform maximum likelihood fits in order to constrain the reionization and galaxy formation histories. We employ a flexible six-parameter model that parametrizes the uncertainties in the properties of high-redshift galaxies. The computational speed needed is attained through the use of an analytical model that is in reasonable agreement with numerical simulations of reionization. We find that one-year observations, with the Murchison Widefield Array, should measure the cosmic ionized fraction to ~1 per cent accuracy at the very end of reionization, and a few per cent accuracy around the mid-point of reionization. The mean halo mass of the ionizing sources should be measurable to 10 per cent accuracy when reionization is 2/3 of the way through, and to 20 per cent accuracy throughout the central stage of reionization, if this mass is anywhere in the range 1/3 to 100 billion solar masses.
Additional Information
© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 RAS. Accepted 2009 April 16. Received 2009 April 15; in original form 2009 March 1. I thank Masataka Fukugita for useful discussions. I am grateful for support from the ICRR in Tokyo, Japan, the Moore Distinguished Scholar program at Caltech, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and Israel Science Foundation grant 629/05.Attached Files
Published - Barkana2009p5598Mon_Not_R_Astron_Soc.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 15243
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090821-140352335
- Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), Tokyo
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- 629/05
- Isreal Science Foundation
- Created
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2009-09-08Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field