Reconstructing patchy helium reionization using the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure

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Hauptverfasser: Çalışkan, Mesut, Kumar, Neha Anil, Hotinli, Selim C., Kamionkowski, Marc
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Çalışkan, Mesut
Kumar, Neha Anil
Hotinli, Selim C.
Kamionkowski, Marc
author_facet Çalışkan, Mesut
Kumar, Neha Anil
Hotinli, Selim C.
Kamionkowski, Marc
contents The intergalactic helium became fully ionized by the end of cosmic noon ($z\sim2$). Similarly to the reionization of hydrogen, helium reionization is expected to be patchy, driven by luminous quasars that ionize the intergalactic gas in their surrounding environment. Probing the morphology of ionized electrons during this epoch can provide crucial information about early structure formation, including the clustering and luminosities of quasars, the accretion rates, variability, and lifetimes of active galactic nuclei, as well as the growth and evolution of supermassive black holes. In this study, we present how measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be used to reconstruct the optical-depth fluctuations resulting from patchy helium reionization. As helium reionization occurred at lower redshifts, upcoming probes of large-scale structure surveys will present a significant opportunity to enhance the prospects of probing this epoch by their combined analysis with the CMB. Using a joint information-matrix analysis of hydrogen and helium reionization, we show that near-future galaxy and CMB surveys will have enough statistical power to detect optical-depth fluctuations due to doubly-ionized helium, providing a way of measuring the redshift and duration of helium reionization to high significance. We also show that modeling uncertainties in helium reionization can impact the measurement precision of parameters characterizing hydrogen reionization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_00118
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reconstructing patchy helium reionization using the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure
Çalışkan, Mesut
Kumar, Neha Anil
Hotinli, Selim C.
Kamionkowski, Marc
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The intergalactic helium became fully ionized by the end of cosmic noon ($z\sim2$). Similarly to the reionization of hydrogen, helium reionization is expected to be patchy, driven by luminous quasars that ionize the intergalactic gas in their surrounding environment. Probing the morphology of ionized electrons during this epoch can provide crucial information about early structure formation, including the clustering and luminosities of quasars, the accretion rates, variability, and lifetimes of active galactic nuclei, as well as the growth and evolution of supermassive black holes. In this study, we present how measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be used to reconstruct the optical-depth fluctuations resulting from patchy helium reionization. As helium reionization occurred at lower redshifts, upcoming probes of large-scale structure surveys will present a significant opportunity to enhance the prospects of probing this epoch by their combined analysis with the CMB. Using a joint information-matrix analysis of hydrogen and helium reionization, we show that near-future galaxy and CMB surveys will have enough statistical power to detect optical-depth fluctuations due to doubly-ionized helium, providing a way of measuring the redshift and duration of helium reionization to high significance. We also show that modeling uncertainties in helium reionization can impact the measurement precision of parameters characterizing hydrogen reionization.
title Reconstructing patchy helium reionization using the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00118