Cosmology with Intensity Mapping via Statistics Beyond the Power Spectrum in the SKAO Era

Suman Majumdar; Debanjan Sarkar; Leon Noble; Manas Mohit Dosibhatla; Zhaoting Chen; Bernhard Vos-Ginés; Vishrut Pandya; Mohd Kamran; Sourav Pal; Chandra Shekhar Murmu; Cora Uhlemann; Pauline Gorbatchev; Jean-Luc Starck; José Luis Bernal; Marta Spinelli; Caroline S. Heneka; Matteo Viel; Gabriella De Lucia; Fabio Fontanot; Stefano Camera; Steve Cunnington; Benedetta Spina; Dionysis Karagiannis; Samit Kumar Pal; Anshuman Tripathi; Sarah Libanore; Abinash Kumar Shaw; Rajesh Mondal; Yashrajsinh Mahida; Yashar Akrami; Philip Bull; Chris Clarkson; Abhirup Datta; José Fonseca; Yin-Zhe Ma; Roy Maartens; Liantsoa F. Randrianjanahary; Martin Sahlen; Xin Wang; Yougang Wang; Jochen Weller

arXiv · 2606.30200

Cosmology with Intensity Mapping via Statistics Beyond the Power Spectrum in the SKAO Era

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Abstract

The cosmological distribution of neutral hydrogen (HI) during the post-reionization era is highly non-Gaussian due to the underlying non-linear structure formation, complex galaxy biasing, and potential primordial non-Gaussianity. One needs higher-order (beyond two-point) statistics to maximally extract the non-Gaussian information out of the 21-cm intensity maps. This chapter summarizes the potential of several higher-order statistics, including voxel intensity distribution, emission line stacking, probability density functions, $\ell_1$-norm, bispectrum, and various marked statistics. Additionally, image-based morphological descriptors, such as the Largest Cluster Statistic, local dimensions, and Minkowski functionals, etc., can potentially characterize the morphology and geometry of the cosmic web encoded in the 21-cm intensity maps. This chapter presents forecasts of the detectability of these higher-order statistics in the context of the future SKAO observations. These forecasts incorporate instrumental noise, observational effects, and, in some cases, foreground removal in their analyses. With its unprecedented sensitivity, the future SKAO 21-cm observations will enable us to measure these higher-order statistics more precisely, possibly helping to break degeneracies between astrophysical and cosmological parameters, and maximizing the science outcome from these surveys.

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Suman Majumdar, Debanjan Sarkar, Leon Noble, Manas Mohit Dosibhatla, Zhaoting Chen, Bernhard Vos-Ginés, Vishrut Pandya, Mohd Kamran, Sourav Pal, Chandra Shekhar Murmu, Cora Uhlemann, Pauline Gorbatchev, Jean-Luc Starck, José Luis Bernal, Marta Spinelli, Caroline S. Heneka, Matteo Viel, Gabriella De Lucia, Fabio Fontanot, Stefano Camera, Steve Cunnington, Benedetta Spina, Dionysis Karagiannis, Samit Kumar Pal, Anshuman Tripathi, Sarah Libanore, Abinash Kumar Shaw, Rajesh Mondal, Yashrajsinh Mahida, Yashar Akrami, Philip Bull, Chris Clarkson, Abhirup Datta, José Fonseca, Yin-Zhe Ma, Roy Maartens, Liantsoa F. Randrianjanahary, Martin Sahlen, Xin Wang, Yougang Wang, Jochen Weller. 2026-06-29. Cosmology with Intensity Mapping via Statistics Beyond the Power Spectrum in the SKAO Era. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30200

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