Illuminating the universe [Elektronische Ressource] : new probes of reionization and cosmology / presented by Oliver Zahn

Sujets

• Astronomie

Informations

• Publié par: ruprecht-karls-universitat_heidelberg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 40
• Langue: Deutsch
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

1
Dissertation
submitted to the
Combined Faculties for the Natural Sciences and for
Mathematics
of the Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg,
Germany
for the degree of
Doctor of Natural Sciences
presented by
Oliver Zahn
born in Munich2
.3
.
Illuminating the Universe: New Probes of
Reionization and Cosmology
Referees: Prof. Dr. Matthias Bartelmann
Prof. Dr. Matias Zaldarriaga (Harvard)4
.5
Zusammenfassung: Wir modellieren die Epoche der Reionisation des
Universums, mittels analytischer und numerischer Methoden. In einer de-
¨tailierten Analyse unserer Ergebnisse stellen wir eine gute Ubereinstimmung
zwischen den alternativen Beschreibungen der Morphologie der ionisierten
Gebiete fest. Wir verwenden unsere Simulationen, um Vorhersagen fuer
Beobachtungsgroßen¨ aufzustellen, dieinnerhalbwenigerJahrezurVerfugung¨
stehen sollten: der kinetische Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Effekt und Schwankungen
inder21cmStrahlungaufgrundderHyperfeinstrukturdesneutralenWasser-
stoffes. Wir schlagen auch vor, die 21 cm Strahlung zur Einschr¨ankung kos-
mologischerParameter(mittelsBestimmungdesMaterie-Leistungsspektrums)
zu verwenden. Desweiteren benutzen¨ wir diese Observable als Hintergrund
fur¨ den Gravitationslinseneffekt aufgrund großskaliger Strukturen im Uni-
versum, und entwickeln einen Formalismus, um die Linsenverteilung aus den
charakteristischen Eigenschaften des beobachteten 21 cm Feldes zu rekon-
struieren.
Abstract: We model the epoch of hydrogen reionisation of the universe,
using analytic as well as numerical methods. In a detailed statistical anal-
ysis of our results, we find good agreement in the alternative descriptions
of the morphology of ionized regions. We use the simulations to make pre-
dictions for reionisation observables that should be accessible within a few
years years: the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect and fluctuations in the 21
cm spin flip transition of neutral hydrogen. We also propose to use the 21
cm signal to constrain cosmological parameters by probing the matter power
spectrum. We also make use of the observable as s source screen for gravi-
tational lensing by large scale structure, and develop a formalism to extract
the lens distribution from the characteristics of the lensed 21 cm field.6Chapter 1
Introduction
Within less than two decades, cosmology has progressed from a rather spec-
ulative science to one of the most successful fields of physics, through being
based on an exemplary interplay between experiment and theory. The mea-
−5surement of fluctuations at the level of 10 in the cosmic microwave back-
ground(CMB)(e.g. [1,2,3])hassuggesteda‘standardmodel’thathasstood
upagainstanumberofotherobservationsbasedonindependentphysics. The
challenge of the dawning cosmological paradigm is that it is fundamentally
puzzling, and comes with the calling to develop new parts for our scientific
toolbox: to explain the fact that the universe looks the same on average in
all directions, we need to invoke an epoch of superluminal expansion (‘infla-
tion’) following the big bang [4, 5]; to understand the haze through which we
see the primordial CMB [6, 7], the absorption pattern of emission lines from
distant luminous quasars (e.g. [8]), as well as other observations, the epoch
of reionization of the universe has to have been more complex than simple
modelsrequire; todojusticetotheobservedluminosity-distancerelationship
of distant Supernovae Ia [9, 10], the clustering of galaxies (e.g. [11, 12], and
further observables, one has to postulate a contribution of roughly 75% of
negatively gravitating ‘dark energy’ to the total energy budget of the present
universe. Addressing these puzzles directly will require fundamentally new
ideas and specifically designed observations, to try to give us more insight
into their nature.
This thesis introduces a number of new ways of cosmological exploration.
Its central topic, the epoch of reionization (EoR), is a pivotal stage in the
process of cosmological structure formation, marking the birth of the first
luminous objects, a key landmark as the universe transforms from the rela-
tively smooth state probed by the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to
its present day complexity.
Firstwewillestablishmoreaccuratepredictionsfortheionizedregionsof
78 Introduction
hydrogen (HII) produced by the first radiative sources. We will achieve this
goal in two different ways, using numerical simulations, as well as modeling
based on analytic considerations. The close agreement we find between both
methodologies gives us confidence that we are beginning to understand the
complex physical processes guiding the EoR.
A second goal of this thesis will be to use the models we develop to make
concretepredictionsforobservablesthatwilllikelybecomeimportantprobes
of the reionization process within the next few years. Current observational
constraints on the EoR offer an incomplete picture. They come from Lyα
forest absorption spectra towards high redshift quasars (e.g. [8]), from mea-
surements of the high redshift galaxy luminosity function from narrow-band
Lyα-emission searches [13], and from measurements of the large scale CMB
E-mode polarization [7, 14]. The claimed size of HII regions surrounding
individual quasars has also been used to infer limits on the neutral fraction
[15]. Therehasalsobeenaninterpretationoftherelativelyhightemperature
of the Lyα forest at z ’ 2−4 as evidence of an order unity change in the
ionized fraction at z < 10 [16, 17], although this depends on the properties
of He II reionization [18].
While valuable, each of these observational probes has its limitations,
and some of the current constraints are relatively meager. Quasar absorp-
tion spectra are limited in part by the high Lyα absorption cross section:
by z ∼ 6, even a highly ionized IGM completely absorbs quasar flux in
the Lyα forest. The constraints from narrow-band Lyα searches are subtle
to interpret (e.g. [19]), and restricted to narrow redshift windows around
z = 5.7 and z = 6.5, where Lyα falls in the observed optical band, and
avoidscontaminationfrombrightskylines(e.g. [20]). Theseobservationsdo
not currently allow the interpretation that the ionization state of the IGM
is evolving between these windows. The CMB polarization measurements
constrain only an integral over the ionization history, and are potentially
sensitive to polarized foreground contamination [7].
The study of the EoR may be revolutionized by experiments aimed at
detecting 21 cm emission from the high redshift IGM when the phase transi-
tionbetweenneutralandionizedoccurred. Theseexperimentsshouldprovide
three-dimensionalinformationregardingthedistributionofhighredshiftneu-
tralhydrogen(HI),constrainingthetopologyofreionization, anditsredshift
evolution (e.g. [21, 22]). Several low frequency radio telescopes are presently
1ramping up to detect this signal: the Mileura Wide Field Array (MWA) ,
the PrimeavAl Structure Telescope (PAST), and the Low Frequency Array
1http://web.haystack.mit.edu/arrays/MWA/9
2(LOFAR) , while another second generation experiment, the Square Kilo-
3meter Array (SKA) , is in the planning stage. These measurements will be
dominated by foreground contamination, but in contrast to the IGM signal,
the foregrounds are expected to be smooth in frequency, facilitating their
removal [22]. One of our goals in this thesis will be to establish accurate
predictions for the 21 cm signal to be expected in these observations.
Adifferentnewgenerationofcosmologyexperimentsisbeingconstructed
totargettheso-called‘secondaryanisotropies’(SA)intheCMB.Its‘primary
anisotropy’ was created 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe
was just 0.1% of its present size. When it had cooled down enough so that
most of its atoms had become neutral, it became transparent to the CMB
photons while expanding by a large factor. There are two extensively stud-
ied ways in which this primordial pattern can get altered: 1) relativistic
bending of light rays caused by massive structures such as clusters of galax-
ies (gravitational lensing); and 2) scattering off hot gas inside dense regions
changes the primordial spectrum and Doppler-shifts the photons into the
line of sight depending on the motion of the gas (the thermal and kinetic
Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effects respectively). In this thesis we will predict
a third way: regions of ionized gas during the epoch when the first radia-
tive sources were created led to inhomogeneous re-scatterings of the CMB
photons.
We will make predictions for how well the upcoming CMB experiments
will be able to distinguish different reionization scenarios. In order to do so,
we also need an accurate model for the signal component from the nearby
universe. Becausethiscontainshighdensitypeaks,thez < 3signalturnsout
tobeverylargeanddominatestheoverallsignal(wewillfindthiscomponent
to make up 70-90% of the total). To model this accurately we resort to large
volume high resolution gas-dynamical simulations to model the kinetic SZ
effect. We will also use our simulations to calculate the thermal component
of the effect, which vanishes at 218 GHz, and can be subtracted by multi-
frequency fitting.
We will largely assume familiarity of the reader with the basic cosmo-
logical paradig