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Article Dans Une Revue Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Année : 2021

The detectability of strong 21-cm forest absorbers from the diffuse intergalactic medium in late reionization models

Tomáš Šoltinský
  • Fonction : Auteur
James S. Bolton
  • Fonction : Auteur
Nina Hatch
  • Fonction : Auteur
Martin G. Haehnelt
  • Fonction : Auteur
Laura C. Keating
  • Fonction : Auteur
Girish Kulkarni
  • Fonction : Auteur
Ewald Puchwein
Dominique Aubert
  • Fonction : Auteur
  • PersonId : 836347

Résumé

A late end to reionization at redshift z ≃ 5.3 is consistent with observed spatial variations in the Ly α forest transmission and the deficit of Ly α emitting galaxies around extended Ly α absorption troughs at z = 5.5. In this model, large islands of neutral hydrogen should persist in the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) until z ≃ 6. We use a novel, hybrid approach that combines high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations with radiative transfer to predict the incidence of strong 21-cm forest absorbers with optical depths τ_21 > 10^−2 from the diffuse IGM in these late reionization models. We include the effect of redshift space distortions on the simulated 21-cm forest spectra, and treat the highly uncertain heating of the pre-reionization IGM by soft X-rays as a free parameter. For a model with only modest IGM pre-heating, such that average gas kinetic temperatures in the diffuse IGM remain below |$T_{\rm K}\simeq 10^{2} \rm \, K$|⁠, we find that strong 21-cm forest absorption lines should persist until z = 6. For a sample of ∼10 sufficiently radio-loud background sources, a null-detection of 21-cm forest absorbers at z ≃ 6 with SKA1-low or possibly LOFAR should provide an informative lower limit on the still largely unconstrained soft X-ray background at high redshift and the temperature of the pre-reionization IGM.
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hal-03229347 , version 1 (22-08-2022)

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Tomáš Šoltinský, James S. Bolton, Nina Hatch, Martin G. Haehnelt, Laura C. Keating, et al.. The detectability of strong 21-cm forest absorbers from the diffuse intergalactic medium in late reionization models. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2021, 506 (4), pp.5818-5835. ⟨10.1093/mnras/stab1830⟩. ⟨hal-03229347⟩
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