The 21cm Signature of a Cosmic String Loop

Abstract

Cosmic string loops lead to nonlinear baryon overdensities at early times, even before the time which in the standard LCDM model corresponds to the time of reionization. These overdense structures lead to signals in 21cm redshift surveys at large redshifts. In this paper, we calculate the amplitude and shape of the string loop-induced 21cm brightness temperature. We find that a string loop leads to a roughly elliptical region in redshift space with extra 21cm emission. The excess brightness temperature for strings with a tension close to the current upper bound can be as high as 1 degree K for string loops generated at early cosmological times (times comparable to the time of equal matter and radiation) and observed at a redshift of z + 1 = 30. The angular extent of these predicted "bright spots" is of the order 0.1 degree for a value of the string tension equal to the current upper bound. These signals should be detectable in upcoming high redshift 21cm surveys.

10 pages

References in corpus (11)

• Cosmology at Low Frequencies: The 21 cm Transition and the High-Redshift Universe
• Cosmological parameters from combining the Lyman-alpha forest with CMB, galaxy clustering and SN constraints
• CMB power spectrum contribution from cosmic strings using field-evolution simulations of the Abelian Higgs model
• Fitting CMB data with cosmic strings and inflation
• String Gas Cosmology and Structure Formation
• Constraints on Supersymmetric Models of Hybrid Inflation
• Analytic Study of Small Scale Structure on Cosmic Strings
• Cosmic String constraints from WMAP and the South Pole Telescope
• The 21 cm Signature of Cosmic String Wakes
• Cosmic string parameter constraints and model analysis using small scale Cosmic Microwave Background data
• Detecting Cosmic Strings in the CMB with the Canny Algorithm

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The number of cosmic string loops
• Transformative Science from the Lunar Farside: Observations of the Dark Ages and Exoplanetary Systems at Low Radio Frequencies
• Searching for Cosmic Strings in New Observational Windows
• Background reionization history from omniscopes
• Cosmic Strings as Emitters of Extremely High Energy Neutrinos
• The 21 cm Signature of Shock Heated and Diffuse Cosmic String Wakes
• Constraints on Superconducting Cosmic Strings from Early Reionization
• Searching for Signatures of Cosmic String Wakes in 21cm Redshift Surveys using Minkowski Functionals
• Note on Structure Formation from Cosmic String Wakes
• Effects of Cosmic String Velocities and the Origin of Globular Clusters
• Signal of Cosmic Strings in Cross-Correlation of 21-cm Redshift and CMB Polarization Maps
• High redshift signatures in the 21 cm forest due to cosmic string wakes
• Global 21cm Absorption Signal from Superconducting Cosmic Strings
• 21 cm Angular Spectrum of Cosmic String Loops
• Cosmic Strings-induced CMB anisotropies in light of Weighted Morphology