Constraining the era of helium reionization using fast radio bursts

Abstract

The discovery of fast radio bursts (FRBs) about a decade ago opened up new possibilities for probing the ionization history of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM). In this paper we study the use of FRBs for tracing the epoch of HeII reionization, using simulations of their dispersion measures. We model dispersion measure contributions from the Milky Way, the IGM (homogeneous and inhomogeneous) and a possible host galaxy as a function of redshift and star formation rate. We estimate the number of FRBs required to distinguish between a model of the Universe in which helium reionization occurred at z = 3 from a model in which it occurred at z = 6 using a 2-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test. We find that if the IGM is homogeneous >1100 FRBs are needed and that an inhomogeneous model in which traversal of the FRB pulse through galaxy halos increases the number of FRBs modestly, to >1600. We also find that to distinguish between a reionization that occurred at z = 3 or z = 3.5 requires ~5700 FRBs in the range 3 < z < 5.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (11)

• A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
• The direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host
• The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
• Intracluster Medium Entropy Profiles for a Chandra Archival Sample of Galaxy Clusters
• The Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102 as Seen on Milliarcsecond Angular Scales
• HeII Reionization and its Effect on the IGM
• The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE): ultraviolet to far-infrared catalogs, medium-bandwidth photometric redshifts with improved accuracy, stellar masses, and confirmation of quiescent galaxies to z~3.5
• The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at z < 8 and its Implications
• The detection of an extremely bright fast radio burst in a phased array feed survey
• The UTMOST: A hybrid digital signal processor transforms the MOST
• A High Yield of New Sightlines for the Study of Intergalactic Helium: Far-UV-Bright Quasars from SDSS, GALEX, and HST

Cited by in corpus (23)

• The Physics of Fast Radio Bursts
• A measurement of Hubble's Constant using Fast Radio Bursts
• CHIME/FRB Catalog 1 results: statistical cross-correlations with large-scale structure
• Faraday depolarization and induced circular polarization by multi-path propagation with application to FRBs
• Exploring the epoch of hydrogen reionization using FRBs
• Cosmological-model-independent determination of Hubble constant from fast radio bursts and Hubble parameter measurements
• Revealing the cosmic reionisation history with fast radio bursts in the era of Square Kilometre Array
• The unseen host galaxy and high dispersion measure of a precisely-localised Fast Radio Burst suggests a high-redshift origin
• Constraining the Epoch of Reionization With Highly Dispersed Fast Radio Bursts
• Fast Radio Burst Tomography of the Unseen Universe
• The Cosmic Evolution of Fast Radio Bursts Inferred from the CHIME/FRB Baseband Catalog 1
• The ultra narrow FRB20191107B, and the origins of FRB scattering
• Fast radio bursts at the dawn of the 2020s
• Statistical measurements of dispersion measure fluctuations of FRBs
• Cosmological Parameter Estimate from Persistent Radio Sources of Fast Radio Bursts
• Dark Twilight Joined with the Light of Dawn to Unveil the Reionization History
• Fast Radio Bursts as crustal dynamical events induced by magnetic field evolution in young magnetars
• Relativistic imprints on dispersion measure space distortions
• Fast radio bursts as probes of feedback from active galactic nuclei
• FRB cosmology with the RM-PRS Luminosity Correlation
• Reconstructing patchy helium reionization using the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure
• Forged by Feedback: Stellar Properties of Brightest Group Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations
• Forecasting the FRB Population Observed Through Galaxy Cluster Lenses