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21-cm Background Anisotropies Can Discern Primordial Non-Gaussianity

Asantha Cooray
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Abstract

The non-Gaussianity of initial perturbations provides information on the mechanism that generated primordial density fluctuations. The expected non-Gaussianity for slow-roll inflationary models is well below the ultimate detection level with cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies or large-large structure at low redshifts. We find that 21-cm background anisotropies of the low-frequency radio sky due to inhomogeneous neutral Hydrogen distribution at redshifts between 30 and 100 captures information on primordial non-Gaussianity better than any other cosmological probe. An all-sky 21-cm experiment over the frequency range from 14 MHz to 40 MHz using a bandwidth of 1 MHz and with angular information out to a multipole of 10^5 can limit the primordial non-Gaussianity parameter f_nl < 0.01. The 21-cm background should eventually reveal the non-Gaussianity associated with single field slow-roll inflation.

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Asantha Cooray. 2006-11-23. 21-cm Background Anisotropies Can Discern Primordial Non-Gaussianity. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.97.261301

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