LIMFAST. II. Line Intensity Mapping as a Probe of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation

Abstract

The epoch of reionization (EoR) offers a unique window into the dawn of galaxy formation, through which high-redshift galaxies can be studied by observations of both themselves and their impact on the intergalactic medium. Line intensity mapping (LIM) promises to explore cosmic reionization and its driving sources by measuring intensity fluctuations of emission lines tracing the cosmic gas in varying phases. Using LIMFAST, a novel semi-numerical tool designed to self-consistently simulate LIM signals of multiple EoR probes, we investigate how building blocks of galaxy formation and evolution theory, such as feedback-regulated star formation and chemical enrichment, might be studied with multi-tracer LIM during the EoR. On galaxy scales, we show that the star formation law and the feedback associated with star formation can be indicated by both the shape and redshift evolution of LIM power spectra. For a baseline model of metal production that traces star formation, we find that lines highly sensitive to metallicity are generally better probes of galaxy formation models. On larger scales, we demonstrate that inferring ionized bubble sizes from cross-correlations between tracers of ionized and neutral gas requires a detailed understanding of the astrophysics that shape the line luminosity--halo mass relation. Despite various modeling and observational challenges, wide-area, multi-tracer LIM surveys will provide important high-redshift tests for the fundamentals of galaxy formation theory, especially the interplay between star formation and feedback by accessing statistically the entire low-mass population of galaxies as ideal laboratories, complementary to upcoming surveys of individual sources by new-generation telescopes.

24 pages, 15 figures; to appear in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Line-Intensity Mapping: Theory Review
• Elevated UV luminosity density at Cosmic Dawn explained by non-evolving, weakly mass-dependent star formation efficiency
• LIMFAST. I. A Semi-Numerical Tool for Line Intensity Mapping
• Forecasts and Statistical Insights for Line Intensity Mapping Cross-Correlations: A Case Study with 21cm x [CII]
• A multi-tracer empirically-driven approach to line-intensity mapping lightcones
• Infrared fine-structure lines at high redshift
• A statistical framework for recovering intensity mapping autocorrelations from crosscorrelations
• Narrowing the discovery space of the cosmological 21-cm signal using multi-wavelength constraints
• The informativeness of [C II] line-intensity mapping as a probe of the H I content and metallicity of galaxies at the end of reionization
• oLIMpus: An Effective Model for Line Intensity Mapping Auto- and Cross- Power Spectra in Cosmic Dawn and Reionization
• Constraining the halo-ISM connection through multi-transition carbon monoxide line-intensity mapping
• Constraining the [CII] luminosity function from the power spectrum of line-intensity maps at redshift 3.6
• A New Boundary Condition on Reionization