Spectral Spatial Fluctuations of CMBR: Strategy and Concept of the Experiment

TL;DR

This paper proposes a strategy for detecting spectral spatial fluctuations in the CMBR caused by primordial atoms, detailing an experimental setup and simulation results that suggest feasible detection limits and future observational prospects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach and simulation for detecting SSF in CMBR, focusing on early reionization redshifts and specific spectral line interactions.

Findings

Expected SSF amplitude of 2x10^{-5} to 2x10^{-6} for HeH+ at z=20-30

Simulation indicates SSF can be recognized with S/N as low as 1.17 in angular power spectrum

Experiment can set upper limits on SSF in the millimeter band

Abstract

Spectral Spatial Fluctuations (SSF) of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) temperature are considered as a result of an interaction of primordial atoms and molecules with CMBR in proto-objects moving with peculiar velocities relative to the CMBR. Expected optimistic values of $\Delta T/T$ are 2x10^{-5}--2x10^{-6}$ for SSF caused by HeH$^+$ at z =20-30 which are possible redshifts of early reionization scenario. The bandwidth of the lines is 0.1-2% depending on the scale of proto-objects and redshifts. For the SSF search CMBR maps in different spectral channels are to be observed and then processed by the Difference method. Simulation of the experiment is made for MSRT (Tuorla Observatory, Finland) equipped with a 7x4 beam cryo-microbolometer array with a chopping flat and frequency multiplexer providing up to 7 spectral channels in each beam (88-100 GHz). Expected $\Delta $T/T limit in the experiment is 2x10 $^{-5}$ with 6'-7' angular and 2% frequency resolution. Simulation shows that SSF may be recognized in the angular power spectrum when S/N in single frequency CMBR maps is as small as 1.17 or even something less for white noise. Such an experiment gives us a possibility to set upper limit of SSF in MM band and prepare future SSF observations.