Constraints on the temperature of the intergalactic medium at z=8.4 with 21-cm observations

TL;DR

This study derives lower limits on the intergalactic medium's temperature at redshift 8.4 using 21-cm observations, accounting for uncertainties in reionization models and incorporating additional astrophysical constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive Bayesian framework that marginalizes over reionization parameters to robustly constrain the IGM temperature from 21-cm data.

Findings

Lower limit of T_S ≥ 3 K at 1σ for neutral fraction > 0.1

Refined lower limit of T_S ≥ 6 K when including additional constraints

Preliminary 21-cm data rules out extremely cold reionization scenarios

Abstract

We compute robust lower limits on the spin temperature, $T_{\rm S}$, of the $z=8.4$ intergalactic medium (IGM), implied by the upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum recently measured by PAPER-64. Unlike previous studies which used a single epoch of reionization (EoR) model, our approach samples a large parameter space of EoR models: the dominant uncertainty when estimating constraints on $T_{\rm S}$. Allowing $T_{\rm S}$ to be a free parameter and marginalizing over EoR parameters in our Markov Chain Monte Carlo code 21CMMC, we infer $T_{\rm S}\ge3 {\rm K}$ (corresponding approximately to $1\sigma$) for a mean IGM neutral fraction of $\bar{x}_{\rm H{\scriptsize I}}\gtrsim0.1$. We further improve on these limits by folding-in additional EoR constraints based on: (i) the dark fraction in QSO spectra, which implies a strict upper limit of $\bar{x}_{\rm H{\scriptsize I}}[z=5.9]\leq 0.06+0.05 \,(1\sigma)$; and (ii) the electron scattering optical depth, $\tau_{\rm e}=0.066\pm0.016\,(1\sigma)$ measured by the Planck satellite. By restricting the allowed EoR models, these additional observations tighten the approximate $1\sigma$ lower limits on the spin temperature to $T_{\rm S} \ge 6$ K. Thus, even such preliminary 21-cm observations begin to rule out extreme scenarios such as `cold reionization', implying at least some prior heating of the IGM. The analysis framework developed here can be applied to upcoming 21-cm observations, thereby providing unique insights into the sources which heated and subsequently reionized the very early Universe.