arXiv subjects

Anastasia Fialkov

Publications and source records attributed to Anastasia Fialkov.

103 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Precise Measurement of the Reionization Optical Depth from The Global 21-cm Signal Accounting for Cosmic Heating

As a result of our limited data on reionization, the total optical depth for electron scattering, $τ$, limits precision measurements of cosmological parameters from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). It was recently shown that the predicted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen contains enough information to reconstruct $τ$ with sub-percent accuracy, assuming that the neutral gas was much hotter than the CMB throughout the entire epoch of reionization. Here we relax this assumption and use the global 21-cm signal alone to extract $τ$ for realistic X-ray heating scenarios. We test our model-independent approach using mock data for a wide range of ionization and heating histories and show that an accurate measurement of the reionization optical depth at a sub-percent level is possible in most of the considered scenarios even when heating is not saturated during the epoch of reionization, assuming that the foregrounds are mitigated. However, we find that in cases where heating sources had hard X-ray spectra and their luminosity was close to or lower than what is predicted based on low-redshift observations, the global 21-cm signal alone is not a good tracer of the reionization history.

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arXiv2015

Distortion of the luminosity function of high-redshift galaxies by gravitational lensing

The observed properties of high redshift galaxies depend on the underlying foreground distribution of large scale structure, which distorts their intrinsic properties via gravitational lensing. We focus on the regime where the dominant contribution originates from a single lens and examine the statistics of gravitational lensing by a population of virialized and non-virialized structures using sub-mm galaxies at z ~ 2.6 and Lyman-break galaxies at redshifts z ~ 6 - 15 as the background sources. We quantify the effect of lensing on the luminosity function of the high redshift sources, focusing on the intermediate and small magnifications, mu < 2, which affect the majority of the background galaxies, and comparing to the case of strong lensing. We show that, depending on the intrinsic properties of the background galaxies, gravitational lensing can significantly affect the observed luminosity function even when no obvious strong lenses are present. Finally, we find that in the case of the Lyman-break galaxies it is important to account for the surface brightness profiles of both the foreground and the background galaxies when computing the lensing statistics, which introduces a selection criterion for the background galaxies that can actually be observed. Not taking this criterion into account leads to an overestimation of the number densities of very bright galaxies by nearly two orders of magnitude.

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arXiv2015

Reconstructing the nature of the first cosmic sources from the anisotropic 21-cm signal

The redshifted 21-cm background is expected to be a powerful probe of the early Universe, carrying both cosmological and astrophysical information from a wide range of redshifts. In particular, the power spectrum of fluctuations in the 21-cm brightness temperature is anisotropic due to the line-of-sight velocity gradient, which in principle allows for a simple extraction of this information in the limit of linear fluctuations. However, recent numerical studies suggest that the 21-cm signal is actually rather complex, and its analysis likely depends on detailed model fitting. We present the first realistic simulation of the anisotropic 21-cm power spectrum over a wide period of early cosmic history. We show that on observable scales, the anisotropy is large and thus measurable at most redshifts, and its form tracks the evolution of 21-cm fluctuations as they are produced early on by Lyman-a radiation from stars, then switch to X-ray radiation from early heating sources, and finally to ionizing radiation from stars. In particular, we predict a redshift window during cosmic heating (at z ~ 15), when the anisotropy is small, during which the shape of the 21-cm power spectrum on large scales is determined directly by the average radial distribution of the flux from X-ray sources. This makes possible a model-independent reconstruction of the X-ray spectrum of the earliest sources of cosmic heating.

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arXiv2014

The rich complexity of 21-cm fluctuations produced by the first stars

We explore the complete history of the 21-cm signal in the redshift range z = 7-40. This redshift range includes various epochs of cosmic evolution related to primordial star formation, and should be accessible to existing or planned low-frequency radio telescopes. We use semi-numerical computational methods to explore the fluctuation signal over wavenumbers between 0.03 and 1 Mpc$^{-1}$, accounting for the inhomogeneous backgrounds of Ly-$α$, X-ray, Lyman-Werner and ionizing radiation. We focus on the recently noted expectation of heating dominated by a hard X-ray spectrum from high-mass X-ray binaries. We study the resulting delayed cosmic heating and suppression of gas temperature fluctuations, allowing for large variations in the minimum halo mass that contributes to star formation. We show that the wavenumbers at which the heating peak is detected in observations should tell us about the characteristic mean free path and spectrum of the emitted photons, thus giving key clues as to the character of the sources that heated the primordial Universe. We also consider the line-of-sight anisotropy, which allows additional information to be extracted from the 21-cm signal. For example, the heating transition at which the cosmic gas is heated to the temperature of the cosmic microwave background should be clearly marked by an especially isotropic power spectrum. More generally, an additional cross-power component $P_X$ directly probes which sources dominate 21-cm fluctuations. In particular, during cosmic reionization (and after the just-mentioned heating transition), $P_X$ is negative on scales dominated by ionization fluctuations and positive on those dominated by temperature fluctuations.

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arXiv2014

Supersonic Relative Velocity between Dark Matter and Baryons: A Review

In this review we summarize the effect of relative supersonic velocities between gas and dark matter created right after recombination on astrophysics and cosmology. The relative velocities formally introduce a second order effect on the standard results and thus have been neglected in the framework of linear theory. However, when properly considered, the velocities yield a non-perturbative contribution to the growth of structures which is then inherited by the majority of cosmic signals coming from redshifts above z ~ 10, and in certain cases may even propagate to various low-redshift observables such as the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations measured from the distribution of galaxies. At higher redshifts, the supersonic velocities have thus strong impact affecting the abundance of first star forming halos in an inhomogeneous way, hindering creation of the first stars, leaving traces in the redshifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen, as well as having other important contributions at high redshifts all of which we review in this manuscript.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

The observable signature of late heating of the Universe during cosmic reionization

Models and simulations of the epoch of reionization predict that spectra of the 21-cm transition of atomic hydrogen will show a clear fluctuation peak, at a redshift and scale, respectively, that mark the central stage of reionization and the characteristic size of ionized bubbles. This is based on the assumption that the cosmic gas was heated by stellar remnants - particularly X-ray binaries - to temperatures well above the cosmic microwave background at that time (~ 30 K). Here we show instead that the hard spectra (that is, spectra with more high-energy photons than low-energy photons) of X-ray binaries make such heating ineffective, resulting in a delayed and spatially uniform heating that modifies the 21-cm signature of reionization. Rather than looking for a simple rise and fall of the large-scale fluctuations (peaking at several millikelvin), we must expect a more complex signal also featuring a distinct minimum (at less than a millikelvin) that marks the rise of the cosmic mean gas temperature above the microwave background. Observing this signal, possibly with radio telescopes in operation today, will demonstrate the presence of a cosmic background of hard X-rays at that early time.

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arXiv2013

The 21-cm Signal from the Cosmological Epoch of Recombination

The redshifted 21-cm emission by neutral hydrogen offers a unique tool for mapping structure formation in the early universe in three dimensions. Here we provide the first detailed calculation of the 21-cm emission signal during and after the epoch of hydrogen recombination in the redshift range of z ~ 500-1,100, corresponding to observed wavelengths of 100-230 meters. The 21-cm line deviates from thermal equilibrium with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) due to the excess Ly-alpha radiation from hydrogen and helium recombinations. The resulting 21-cm signal reaches a brightness temperature of a milli-Kelvin, orders of magnitude larger than previously estimated. Its detection by a future lunar or space-based observatory could improve dramatically the statistical constraints on the cosmological initial conditions compared to existing two-dimensional maps of the CMB anisotropies.

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arXiv2013

Complete history of the observable 21-cm signal from the first stars during the pre-reionization era

We present the first complete calculation of the history of the inhomogeneous 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen during the era of the first stars. We use hybrid computational methods to capture the large-scale distribution of the first stars, whose radiation couples to the neutral hydrogen emission, and to evaluate the 21-cm signal from z ~ 15-35. In our realistic picture large-scale fluctuations in the 21-cm signal are sourced by the inhomogeneous density field and by the Ly-alpha and X-ray radiative backgrounds. The star formation is suppressed by two spatially varying effects: negative feedback provided by the Lyman-Werner radiative background, and supersonic relative velocities between the gas and dark matter. Our conclusions are quite promising: we find that the fluctuations imprinted by the inhomogeneous Ly-alpha background in the 21-cm signal at z ~ 25 should be detectable with the Square Kilometer Array.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

The 21-cm signature of the first stars during the Lyman-Werner feedback era

The formation of the first stars is an exciting frontier area in astronomy. Early redshifts z ~ 20 have become observationally promising as a result of a recently recognized effect of a supersonic relative velocity between the dark matter and gas. This effect produces prominent structure on 100 comoving Mpc scales, which makes it much more feasible to detect 21-cm fluctuations from the epoch of first heating. We use semi-numerical hybrid methods to follow for the first time the joint evolution of the X-ray and Lyman-Werner radiative backgrounds, including the effect of the supersonic streaming velocity on the cosmic distribution of stars. We incorporate self-consistently the negative feedback on star formation induced by the Lyman-Werner radiation, which dissociates molecular hydrogen and thus suppresses gas cooling. We find that the feedback delays the X-ray heating transition by a Delta z ~ 2, but leaves a promisingly large fluctuation signal over a broad redshift range. The large-scale power spectrum is predicted to reach a maximal signal-to-noise ratio of S/N ~ 3-4 at z ~ 18 (for a projected first-generation instrument), with S/N > 1 out to z ~ 22-23. We hope to stimulate additional numerical simulations as well as observational efforts focused on the epoch prior to cosmic reionization.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20

Dark and baryonic matter moved at different velocities in the early Universe, which strongly suppressed star formation in some regions. This was estimated to imprint a large-scale fluctuation signal of about 2 mK in the 21-cm spectral line of atomic hydrogen associated with stars at a redshift of 20, although this estimate ignored the critical contribution of gas heating due to X-rays and major enhancements of the suppression. A large velocity difference reduces the abundance of halos and requires the first stars to form in halos of about a million solar masses, substantially greater than previously expected. Here we report a simulation of the distribution of the first stars at z=20 (cosmic age of ~180 Myr), incorporating all these ingredients within a 400 Mpc box. We find that the 21-cm signature of these stars is an enhanced (10 mK) fluctuation signal on the 100-Mpc scale, characterized by a flat power spectrum with prominent baryon acoustic oscillations. The required sensitivity to see this signal is achievable with an integration time of a thousand hours with an instrument like the Murchison Wide-field Array or the Low Frequency Array but designed to operate in the range of 50-100 MHz.

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arXiv2011

Impact of the Relative Motion between the Dark Matter and Baryons on the First Stars

Recently the initial supersonic relative velocity between the dark matter and baryons was shown to have an important effect on galaxy formation at high redshift. We study the impact of this relative motion on the distribution of the star-forming halos and on the formation redshift of the very first star. We include a new aspect of the relative velocity effect found in recent simulations by fitting their results to obtain the spatially-varying minimum halo mass needed for molecular cooling. Thus, the relative velocities have three separate effects: suppression of the halo abundance, suppression of the gas content within each halo, and boosting of the minimum cooling mass. We show that the two suppressions (of gas content and of halo abundance) are the primary effects on the small minihalos that cannot form stars, while the cooling mass boost combines with the abundance suppression to produce order unity fluctuations in stellar density. We quantify the large-scale inhomogeneity of galaxies, finding that 68% of the star formation (averaged on a 3 Mpc scale) is confined to 35% of the volume at z=20 (and just 18% at z=40). In addition, we estimate the redshift of the first star to be z ~ 65, which includes a delay of Dz ~ 5 due to the relative velocity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

How Sensitive is the CMB to a Single Lens?

We study the imprints of a single lens, that breaks statistical isotropy, on the CMB and calculate the signal to noise ratio (S/N) for its detection. We emphasize the role of non-Gaussianities induced by LCDM weak lensing in this calculation and show that typically the S/N is much smaller than expected. In particular we find that the hypothesis that a void (texture) is responsible for the WMAP cold spot can barely (cannot) be tested via weak lensing of the CMB.

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arXiv2009

Cosmological Imprints of Pre-Inflationary Particles

We study some of the cosmological imprints of pre-inflationary particles. We show that each such particle provides a seed for a spherically symmetric cosmic defect. The profile of this cosmic defect is fixed and its magnitude is linear in a single parameter that is determined by the mass of the pre-inflationary particle. We study the CMB and peculiar velocity imprints of this cosmic defect and suggest that it could explain some of the large scale cosmological anomalies.

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