Fast Radio Burst Dispersion Measure Distribution as a Probe of Helium Reionization

Abstract

Fast radio burst (FRB) discoveries are occurring rapidly, with thousands expected from upcoming surveys. The dispersion measures (DM) observed for FRB include important information on cosmological distances and the ionization state of the universe from the redshift of emission until today. Rather than considering the DM--redshift relation, we investigate the statistical ensemble of the distribution of dispersion measures. We explore the use of this abundance information, with and without redshift information, to probe helium reionization. Carrying out Monte Carlo simulations of FRB survey samples, we examine the effect of different source redshift distributions, host galaxy models, sudden vs gradual reionization, and covariance with cosmological parameters on determination of helium reionization properties. We find that a fluence limited survey with 10${}^4$ FRBs can discriminate different helium reionization histories at $\sim 6\sigma$ using the DM-distribution of bursts, without redshift information (and $\sim 10\sigma$ with redshifts).

15 pages, 11 figures

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• The Physics of Fast Radio Bursts
• A new measurement of the Hubble constant using Fast Radio Bursts
• Exploring the epoch of hydrogen reionization using FRBs
• Cosmological-model-independent determination of Hubble constant from fast radio bursts and Hubble parameter measurements
• Search for lensing signatures from the latest fast radio burst observations and constraints on the abundance of primordial black holes
• What it Takes to Measure Reionization with Fast Radio Bursts
• Radio Scattering Horizons for Galactic and Extragalactic Transients
• Constraining the Epoch of Reionization With Highly Dispersed Fast Radio Bursts
• Constraints on the abundance of primordial black holes with different mass distributions from lensing of fast radio bursts
• The Cosmic Evolution of Fast Radio Bursts Inferred from the CHIME/FRB Baseband Catalog 1
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• Cosmological Covariance of Fast Radio Burst Dispersions
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• Reconstructing patchy helium reionization using the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure
• Unveiling the distribution and redshift dependence of host galaxy dispersion measures using localized fast radio bursts