Upper Limits on the 21 cm Power Spectrum at z = 5.9 from Quasar Absorption Line Spectroscopy

Abstract

We present upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum at $z=5.9$ calculated from the model-independent limit on the neutral fraction of the intergalactic medium of $x_{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{I}}<0.06+0.05(1\sigma )$ derived from dark pixel statistics of quasar absorption spectra. Using 21CMMC, a Markov chain Monte Carlo Epoch of Reionization analysis code, we explore the probability distribution of 21 cm power spectra consistent with this constraint on the neutral fraction. We present 99 per cent confidence upper limits of ${\Delta }^2(k)<10$ to $20{\mathrm{mK}}^2$ over a range of $k$ from 0.5 to $2.0h{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, with the exact limit dependent on the sampled $k$ mode. This limit can be used as a null test for 21 cm experiments: a detection of power at $z=5.9$ in excess of this value is highly suggestive of residual foreground contamination or other systematic errors affecting the analysis.

arXiv comment5 pages, 1 figure, accepted to MNRAS letters

References in corpus (52)

• LOFAR: The LOw-Frequency ARray
• The Murchison Widefield Array: the Square Kilometre Array Precursor at low radio frequencies
• 21cmFAST: A Fast, Semi-Numerical Simulation of the High-Redshift 21-cm Signal
• Model-independent evidence in favor of an end to reionization by z~6
• Cosmological Parameter Estimation Using 21 cm Radiation from the Epoch of Reionization
• Efficient Simulations of Early Structure Formation and Reionization
• The Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization: 8 Station Results
• What Next-Generation 21 cm Power Spectrum Measurements Can Teach Us About the Epoch of Reionization
• A Per-Baseline, Delay-Spectrum Technique for Accessing the 21cm Cosmic Reionization Signature
• The Global 21 Centimeter Background from High Redshifts
• New Limits on 21cm EoR From PAPER-32 Consistent with an X-Ray Heated IGM at z=7.7
• PAPER-64 Constraints on Reionization: The 21cm Power Spectrum at z=8.4
• 21CMMC: an MCMC analysis tool enabling astrophysical parameter studies of the cosmic 21 cm signal
• The Evolution of Lyman Limit Absorption Systems to Redshift Six
• Signatures of X-rays in the early Universe
• Statistical Probes of Reionization With 21 cm Tomography
• A Sensitivity and Array-Configuration Study for Measuring the Power Spectrum of 21cm Emission from Reionization
• Intensity Mapping with Carbon Monoxide Emission Lines and the Redshifted 21 cm Line
• Inhomogeneous recombinations during cosmic reionization
• Intensity Mapping of the [CII] Fine Structure Line during the Epoch of Reionization
• Detecting the Rise and Fall of 21 cm Fluctuations with the Murchison Widefield Array
• The Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Broadband and Broad-beam Array: Design Overview and Sensitivity Forecasts
• Initial deep LOFAR observations of Epoch of Reionization windows: I. The North Celestial Pole
• Power Spectrum Sensitivity and the Design of Epoch of Reionization Observatories
• CHIPS: The Cosmological HI Power Spectrum Estimator
• Empirical Covariance Modeling for 21 cm Power Spectrum Estimation: A Method Demonstration and New Limits from Early Murchison Widefield Array 128-Tile Data
• Constraints on X-ray Emissions from the Reionization Era
• The Evolution of 21-cm Structure (EOS): public, large-scale simulations of Cosmic Dawn and Reionization
• Light cone effect on the reionization 21-cm power spectrum
• The impact of the supersonic baryon-dark matter velocity difference on the z~20 21cm background
• The kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signal from inhomogeneous reionization: a parameter space study
• The Physics and Early History of the Intergalactic Medium
• PAPER-64 Constraints On Reionization II: The Temperature Of The z=8.4 Intergalactic Medium
• Multi-redshift limits on the 21cm power spectrum from PAPER
• Probing Reionization with Intensity Mapping of Molecular and Fine Structure Lines
• Initial LOFAR observations of Epoch of Reionization windows: II. Diffuse polarized emission in the ELAIS-N1 field
• The GMRT EoR Experiment: Limits on Polarized Sky Brightness at 150 MHz
• The EoR Sensitivity of the Murchison Widefield Array
• Light cone effect on the reionization 21-cm signal II: Evolution, anisotropies and observational implications
• The Cross-Correlation of High-Redshift 21 cm and Galaxy Surveys
• The Impact of Foregrounds on Redshift Space Distortion Measurements With the Highly-Redshifted 21 cm Line
• 21 cm observation of LSS at z~1 Instrument sensitivity and foreground subtraction
• The ionizing background at the end of overlap
• Reionization on Large Scales IV: Predictions for the 21 cm signal incorporating the light cone effect
• Constraints on the temperature of the intergalactic medium at z=8.4 with 21-cm observations
• Predictions for the 21cm-galaxy cross-power spectrum observable with LOFAR and Subaru
• The distribution of Lyman-limit absorption systems during and after reionization
• Dark-ages reionization & galaxy formation simulation V: morphology and statistical signatures of reionization
• Stars and Reionization: The Cross-Correlation of the 21cm Line and the Near Infrared Background
• Probing reionization with the cross power spectrum of 21 cm and near-infrared radiation backgrounds
• Measuring the Redshift of Reionization with a Modest Array of Low-Frequency Dipoles
• The Correlation Between Star Formation and 21cm Emission During the Reionization Epoch

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)
• Improving the Epoch of Reionization Power Spectrum Results from Murchison Widefield Array Season 1 Observations
• First Season MWA Phase II EoR Power Spectrum Results at Redshift 7
• Constraining the astrophysics and cosmology from 21cm tomography using deep learning with the SKA
• Evaluating machine learning techniques for predicting power spectra from reionization simulations
• The impact of non-Gaussianity on the error covariance for observations of the Epoch of Reionization 21-cm power spectrum
• Detecting Cosmic Reionization using Bi-Spectrum Phase
• Analysing the Epoch of Reionization with three-point correlation functions and machine learning techniques