Impact of cosmic rays on the global 21-cm signal during cosmic dawn

TL;DR

This study investigates how cosmic ray heating from early supernovae influences the thermal evolution of the inter-galactic medium and the resulting 21-cm signal during cosmic dawn, providing insights into early star formation and cosmic ray properties.

Contribution

It introduces a model of cosmic ray heating effects from Pop III and Pop II supernovae on the IGM and its impact on the global 21-cm signal during cosmic dawn.

Findings

Cosmic ray heating significantly affects the IGM temperature and 21-cm signal.

The EDGES 21-cm absorption profile can be explained by cosmic ray heating combined with other effects.

Properties of cosmic rays and early stars can be constrained by 21-cm observations.

Abstract

It is extremely important to understand the processes through which the thermal state of the inter-galactic medium (IGM) evolved in the early universe in order to study the evolution of HI 21-cm signal during cosmic dawn. Here, we consider the heating of the IGM due to cosmic ray protons generated by the supernovae from both early Pop III and Pop II stars. The low energy cosmic ray protons from Pop III supernovae can escape from minihalos and heat the IGM via collision and ionization of hydrogen. Furthermore, high energy protons generated in Pop II supernovae can escape the hosting halos and heat the IGM via magnetosonic Alfv\'en waves. We show that the heating due to these cosmic ray particles can significantly impact the IGM temperature and hence the global 21-cm signal at $z\sim 14-18$. The depth, location, and duration of the 21-cm absorption profile are highly dependent on the efficiencies of cosmic ray heating. In particular, the EDGES signal can be well fitted by the cosmic ray heating along with the Lyman-$\alpha$ coupling, and the dark matter-baryon interaction that we consider to achieve a `colder IGM background'. Further, we argue that the properties of cosmic rays and the nature of first generation of stars could be constrained by accurately measuring the global 21-cm absorption signal during the cosmic dawn.