Formation of the hydrogen line 21-cm in Dark Ages and Cosmic Dawn: dependences on cosmology and first light

TL;DR

This paper models the 21-cm hydrogen line during cosmic Dark Ages and Dawn, analyzing how it depends on cosmological parameters and early light sources, with implications for understanding the universe's evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the 21-cm line formation across different epochs, considering standard and non-standard cosmological models, and highlights the dependence on physical and cosmological parameters.

Findings

Standard model predicts a 30-50 mK absorption line at z~80.

Line profile varies significantly in non-standard models with dark matter or magnetic fields.

The position and depth of the Cosmic Dawn absorption line depend mainly on the first light sources' spectra.

Abstract

We analyze the formation of the redshifted hyperfine structure line 21-cm of hydrogen atom in the Dark Ages, Cosmic Dawn, and Reionization epochs. The evolution of the global differential brightness temperature in this line was computed to study its dependence on the values of cosmological parameters and physical conditions in the intergalactic medium. Variations of the depth of the Dark Ages absorption line at $z\sim80$ with variations of the cosmological parameters $\Omega_b$, $\Omega_{cdm}$, $\Omega_{\Lambda}$, $\Omega_K$ and $H_0$ are studied. The standard model with post-Planck parameters predicts a value of the differential brightness temperature in the center of the absorption line $\sim$30-50 mK. The profile of this line can be quite another in the non-standard cosmological models, which include the annihilating or decaying dark matter, a primordial stochastic magnetic field, etc. It can be shallower or be an emission bump instead of an absorption trough. It is also shown that the position and depth of the Cosmic Dawn absorption line formed at 10<z<30, due to the Wouthuysen-Field effect, is mainly defined by the spectral energy distribution of the first sources of light. If reionization occurs at $z_{ri}=7\pm1$, then the differential brightness temperature in the center of this line is $\sim$80 mK. During the reionization, the emission with an amplitude of $\sim$20 mK is possible. It is also shown that the temperature, density, and degree of ionization of the baryonic component are decisive in calculating the intensity of the 21-cm absorption/emission line from these epochs.