Extracting bias using the cross-bispectrum: An EoR and 21 cm-[CII]-[CII] case study [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1806.02796


The amplitude of redshifted 21 cm fluctuations during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) is expected to show a distinctive “rise and fall” behavior with decreasing redshift as reionization proceeds. On large scales (k <~ 0.1 Mpc^{-1}) this can mostly be characterized by evolution in the product of the mean 21 cm brightness temperature and a bias factor, b_21(z). This quantity evolves in a distinctive way that can help in determining the average ionization history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) from upcoming 21 cm fluctuation data sets. Here we consider extracting <T_21> b_21(z) using a combination of future redshifted 21 cm and [CII] line-intensity mapping data sets. Our method exploits the dependence of the 21 cm-[CII]-[CII] cross-bispectrum on the shape of triangle configurations in Fourier space. This allows one to determine <T_21> b_21(z) yet, importantly, is less sensitive to foreground contamination than the 21 cm auto-spectrum, and so can provide a valuable cross-check. We compare the results of simulated bispectra with second-order perturbation theory: on large scales the perturbative estimate of <T_21> b_21(z) matches the true value to within 10% for <x_i> <~ 0.8. We consider the 21 cm auto-bispectrum and show that this statistic may also be used to extract the 21 cm bias factor. Finally, we discuss the survey requirements for measuring the cross-bispectrum. Although we focus on the 21 cm-[CII]-[CII] bispectrum during reionization, our method may be of broader interest and can be applied to any two fields throughout cosmic history.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Beane and A. Lidz
Fri, 8 Jun 18
29/51

Comments: 14 pages, 10 figures; comments welcome