The impact of spin temperature fluctuations on the 21-cm moments

TL;DR

This study investigates how fluctuations in spin temperature, driven by Lyman-alpha coupling and X-ray heating, influence the 21-cm brightness-temperature statistics, revealing how different heating scenarios affect reionization constraints.

Contribution

It demonstrates the sensitivity of 21-cm moments to X-ray heating efficiency and spectrum, and proposes methods to distinguish late heating scenarios through variance and skewness evolution.

Findings

Variance peaks correlate with X-ray efficiency.

Harder X-ray spectra increase variance amplitude.

Late X-ray heating complicates reionization constraints.

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of Lyman-alpha coupling and X-ray heating on the 21-cm brightness-temperature one-point statistics (as predicted by semi-numerical simulations). The X-ray production efficiency is varied over four orders of magnitude and the hardness of the X-ray spectrum is varied from that predicted for high-mass X-ray binaries, to the softer spectrum expected from the hot inter-stellar medium. We find peaks in the redshift evolution of both the variance and skewness associated with the efficiency of X-ray production. The amplitude of the variance is also sensitive to the hardness of the X-ray SED. We find that the relative timing of the coupling and heating phases can be inferred from the redshift extent of a plateau that connects a peak in the variance's evolution associated with Lyman-alpha coupling to the heating peak. Importantly, we find that late X-ray heating would seriously hamper our ability to constrain reionization with the variance. Late X-ray heating also qualitatively alters the evolution of the skewness, providing a clean way to constrain such models. If foregrounds can be removed, we find that LOFAR, MWA and PAPER could constrain reionization and late X-ray heating models with the variance. We find that HERA and SKA (phase 1) will be able to constrain both reionization and heating by measuring the variance using foreground-avoidance techniques. If foregrounds can be removed they will also be able to constrain the nature of Lyman-alpha coupling.