The 21 cm Signature of Shock Heated and Diffuse Cosmic String Wakes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the 21 cm signals from cosmic string wakes, focusing on shock heated and diffuse wakes, and assesses their detectability with the Square Kilometre Array, providing new constraints on string tension.

Contribution

It extends previous analyses by considering wakes formed after matter-radiation equality and compares signals from shock heated and diffuse wakes against thermal noise.

Findings

Cosmic string signals exceed thermal noise for Gμ > 2.5×10⁻⁸.

Shock heated wakes produce stronger signals than diffuse wakes.

Constraints on Gμ are derived from the 21 cm absorption signal.

Abstract

The analysis of the 21 cm signature of cosmic string wakes is extended in several ways. First we consider the constraints on $G\mu$ from the absorption signal of shock heated wakes laid down much later than matter radiation equality. Secondly we analyze the signal of diffuse wake, that is those wakes in which there is a baryon overdensity but which have not shock heated. Finally we compare the size of these signals compared to the expected thermal noise per pixel which dominates over the background cosmic gas brightness temperature and find that the cosmic string signal will exceed the thermal noise of an individual pixel in the Square Kilometre Array for string tensions $G\mu > 2.5 \times 10^{-8}$.