Probing the intergalactic medium during the Epoch of Reionization using 21-cm signal power spectra
Astronomy & Astrophysics(2024)
Abstract
The redshifted 21-cm signal from the epoch of reionization (EoR) directly
probes the ionization and thermal states of the intergalactic medium during
that period. In particular, the distribution of the ionized regions around the
radiating sources during EoR introduces scale-dependent features in the
spherically-averaged EoR 21-cm signal power spectrum. The goal is to study
these scale-dependent features at different stages of reionization using
numerical simulations and build a source model-independent framework to probe
the properties of the intergalactic medium using EoR 21-cm signal power
spectrum measurements. Under the assumption of high spin temperature, we
modelled the redshift evolution of the ratio of EoR 21-cm brightness
temperature power spectrum and the corresponding density power spectrum using
an ansatz consisting of a set of redshift and scale-independent parameters.
This set of eight parameters probes the redshift evolution of the average
ionization fraction and the quantities related to the morphology of the ionized
regions. We have tested this ansatz on different reionization scenarios
generated using different simulation algorithms and found that it is able to
recover the redshift evolution of the average neutral fraction within an
absolute deviation ≲ 0.1. Our framework allows us to interpret 21-cm
signal power spectra in terms of parameters related to the state of the IGM.
This source model-independent framework can efficiently constrain reionization
scenarios using multi-redshift power spectrum measurements with ongoing and
future radio telescopes such as LOFAR, MWA, HERA, and SKA. This will add
independent information regarding the EoR IGM properties.
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