Impact of inhomogeneous CMB heating of gas on the HI 21-cm signal during dark ages
Abstract
Observations of redshifted 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen (HI) appear to be the most promising probe of the cosmic dark ages. The signal carries information about the thermal state along with density distribution of the inter galactic medium (IGM). The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), through its interaction with charged particles, plays a major role in determining the kinetic and spin temperature of HI gas in the IGM during dark ages. A spatially fluctuating ionization fraction, which is caused by inhomogeneous recombinations, causes heat transfer from the CMBR to the IGM gas inhomogeneous. We revisit the impact of this inhomogeneous heat transfer on spatial fluctuations in the observed HI 21-cm signal over a large redshift range during dark ages. Our study shows that the effect negatively impacts fluctuations in the HI spin temperature and results in an enhanced HI 21-cm power spectrum. We find that the effect is particularly important during the transition of the gas kinetic temperature being coupled to the CMBR to fully decoupled from it, i.e., in the redshift range 30 ≲z ≲300 . It is found that, on the average the HI power spectrum, PT b(k ,z ) is enhanced by ∼4 %, ∼10 %, ∼20 %, and ∼30 % at redshifts 60, 90, 140, and 200 respectively at k =0.1 Mpc-1. The effect becomes even more significant at lower values of k∥2/k2 due to the reduced dominance of the peculiar velocity. It is observed that the power spectrum is enhanced by ∼49 % and ∼93 % at redshifts 140 and 200 respectively at k =0.1 Mpc-1 for k∥2/k2=0 . This enhancement has a weak k -mode dependence.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- November 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.103505
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1810.05908
- Bibcode:
- 2018PhRvD..98j3505A
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted in PRD