Measuring the history of cosmic reionization using the 21-cm probability distribution function from simulations
Abstract
The 21-cm probability distribution function (PDF; i.e. distribution of pixel brightness temperatures) is expected to be highly non-Gaussian during reionization and to provide important information on the distribution of density and ionization. We measure the 21-cm PDF as a function of redshift in a large simulation of cosmic reionization and propose a simple empirical fit. Guided by the simulated PDF, we then carry out a maximum likelihood analysis of the ability of upcoming experiments to measure the shape of the 21-cm PDF and derive from it the cosmic reionization history. Under the strongest assumptions, we find that upcoming experiments can measure the reionization history in the mid to late stages of reionization to 1–10 per cent accuracy. Under a more flexible approach that allows for four free parameters at each redshift, a similar accuracy requires the lower noise levels of second-generation 21-cm experiments.
Additional Information
© 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS. Accepted 2010 April 10. Received 2010 March 28; in original form 2009 July 17. Article first published online: 9 July 2010. We thank Oh, Hansen, Furlanetto &Mesinger for providing us with a draft of their paper far in advance of publication. RB is grateful for support from the ICRR in Tokyo, Japan, the Moore Distinguished Scholar programme at Caltech, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Israel Science Foundation grant 629/05. This study was supported in part by Swiss National Science Foundation grant 200021-116696/1, NSF grant AST 0708176, NASA grants NNX07AH09G and NNG04G177G, Chandra grant SAO TM8-9009X and Swedish Research Council grant 60336701.Attached Files
Published - Ichikawa2010p11101Mon_Not_R_Astron_Soc.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 19648
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100824-150717113
- ICRR in Tokyo, Japan
- Caltech
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
- 629/05
- Israel Science Foundation
- 200021-116696/1
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- AST 0708176
- NSF
- NNX07AH09G
- NASA
- NNG04G177G
- NASA
- 60336701
- Swedish Research Council
- SAO TM8-9009X
- Chandra grant
- Created
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2010-09-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field