Observational Signatures of the First Luminous Objects

Abstract

The next generation of astronomical instruments will be able to detect dense pockets of ionized gas created by the first luminous objects. The integrated free-free emission from ionized halos creates a spectral distortion of the Cosmic Microwave Background, greater than the distortion due to the reionized intergalactic medium. Its detection is well within the capabilities of the planned DIMES satellite. Ionized halos may also be imaged directly in free-free emission by the Square Kilometer Array. Bright halos will be detected as discrete sources, while residual unresolved sources can still be detected statistically from temperature fluctuations in maps. Balmer line emission from ionized halos is detectable by the Next Generation Space Telescope and can be used to obtain redshift information. Unlike Ly-alpha, the H-alpha line does not suffer from resonant scattering by neutral hydrogen, and is still observable when the IGM is not fully reionized. In addition, it is less susceptible to dust extinction. Finally, the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect may be used to detect ionized gas at high redshift. Used in concert, these observations will probe ionizing emissivity, gas clumping, and star formation in the early universe.

35 pages, 7 figures, accepted by ApJ. Minor modifications; includes discussion of lower star formation efficiency case

Cited by in corpus (50)

• Cosmology at Low Frequencies: The 21 cm Transition and the High-Redshift Universe
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• The First Galaxies
• Fundamental Physics with the Square Kilometre Array
• The Reionization of the Universe by the First Stars and Quasars
• Multifrequency analysis of 21 cm fluctuations from the Era of Reionization
• Radio and Millimeter Continuum Surveys and their Astrophysical Implications
• Predictions for high-frequency radio surveys of extragalactic sources
• Fossil HII Regions: Self-Limiting Star Formation at High Redshift
• The Reionization History at High Redshifts I: Physical Models and New Constraints from CMB Polarization
• Probing reionization with Lyman-alpha emission lines
• Radio Foregrounds for the 21cm Tomography of the Neutral Intergalactic Medium at High Redshifts
• Reionization by Hard Photons: I. X-rays from the First Star Clusters
• Inhomogeneous Reionization Regulated by Radiative and Stellar Feedbacks
• Characteristic Scales During Reionization
• Foregrounds for 21cm Observations of Neutral Gas at High Redshift
• The 21 centimeter emission from the reionization epoch: extended and point source foregrounds
• The multi-frequency angular power spectrum of the epoch of reionization 21 cm signal
• Lyman Alpha Radiation From Collapsing Protogalaxies II: Observational Evidence for Gas Infall
• The First Galaxies: Assembly of Disks and Prospects for Direct Detection
• The First Galaxies: Assembly under Radiative Feedback from the First Stars
• HeII Recombination Lines From the First Luminous Objects
• The Temperature of the CMB at 10 GHz
• Sunyaev-Zeldovich Fluctuations from the First Stars?
• The first galaxies: simulating their feedback-regulated assembly
• Fragmentation in the First Galaxies
• TRIS II: search for CMB spectral distortions at 0.60, 0.82 and 2.5 GHz
• Detecting ionized bubbles in redshifted 21 cm maps
• Observing Dark Stars with JWST
• Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time
• Free-Free Emission at Low Radio Frequencies
• Large-Scale Non-Gaussianities in the 21 cm Background Anisotropies From the Era of Reionization
• ARCADE: Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission
• Probing High Redshift Radiation Fields with Gamma-Ray Absorption
• CMB Anisotropies due to Feedback-Regulated Inhomogeneous Reionization
• Semi-analytical description of clumping factor and CMB free-free distortions from reionization
• Signature of the first galaxies in JWST deep field observations
• An Instrument to Measure the Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at Centimeter Wavelengths
• The cosmological free-free signal from galaxy groups and clusters
• What can we learn on the thermal history of the Universe from future CMB spectrum measures at long wavelengths?
• Galaxies Inside Stromgren Spheres of Luminous Quasars at z>6: Detection of The First Galaxies
• On a possible nonequilibrium imprint in the cosmic background at low frequencies
• The contribution of star-forming galaxies to the cosmic radio background
• Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects, free-free emission, and imprints on the cosmic microwave background
• Frequency-redshift relation of the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Reionization and Structure Formation with ARCADE
• Observability of the virialization phase of spheroidal galaxies with radio arrays
• Effects of observer peculiar motion on the isotropic background frequency spectrum: from monopole to higher multipoles
• Predictions for the diffuse cosmic dipole at radio frequencies from reionization imprints
• Observing high redshift galaxy clusters through lensing of the Ostriker-Vishniac effect