Primordial non-Gaussianity from the 21 cm Power Spectrum during the Epoch of Reionization

TL;DR

This paper investigates how primordial non-Gaussianity influences the 21 cm emission power spectrum during reionization, assessing the potential of current and future experiments to constrain the non-Gaussianity parameter f_NL.

Contribution

It analyzes the impact of primordial non-Gaussianity on the 21 cm power spectrum and evaluates the constraints achievable by upcoming radio telescopes.

Findings

SKA and MWA can measure f_NL of order 10.

Omniscope could improve measurements by an order of magnitude.

Large-scale 21 cm power spectrum is sensitive to primordial non-Gaussianity.

Abstract

Primordial non-Gaussianity is a crucial test of inflationary cosmology. We consider the impact of non-Gaussianity on the ionization power spectrum from 21 cm emission during the epoch of reionization. We focus on the power spectrum on large scales at redshifts of 7 to 8 and explore the expected constraint on the local non-Gaussianity parameter f_NL for current and next-generation 21 cm experiments. We show that experiments such as SKA and MWA could measure f_NL values of order 10. This can be improved by an order of magnitude with a fast-Fourier transform telescope like Omniscope.