The relative constraining power of the high-$z$ 21-cm dipole and monopole signals

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of the 21-cm dipole signal, alongside the monopole, as a probe of early galaxy formation, showing the dipole's competitive constraining power and robustness as a cross-check.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the 21-cm dipole signal can provide competitive constraints on early galaxy properties and is a robust, valuable target for future observations.

Findings

Dipole constraints can improve understanding of early star formation.

Dipole measurements are robust to different signal models.

Dipole offers a valuable cross-check for monopole data.

Abstract

The 21-cm background is a promising probe of early star formation and black hole activity. While a slew of experiments on the ground seek to detect the 21-cm monopole and spatial fluctuations on large $\sim 10$ arcminute scales, little work has been done on the prospects for detecting the 21-cm dipole signal or its utility as a probe of early galaxies. Though an intrinsically weak signal relative to the monopole, its direction is known well from the cosmic microwave background and wide-field surveys, plus as a relative measurement the dipole could help relax instrumental requirements. In order to understand the constraining power of the dipole, in this work we perform parameter inference on mock datasets that include the dipole, monopole, or both signals. We find that while the monopole does provide the best constraints for a given integration time, constraints from a dipole measurement are competitive, and can in principle constrain the cosmic star formation rate density and efficiency of X-ray photon production in early $z \sim 15$ galaxies to better than a factor of $\sim 2$. This result holds for most of the available prior volume, which is set by constraints on galaxy luminosity functions, the reionization history, and upper limits from 21-cm power spectrum experiments. We also find that predictions for the monopole from a dipole measurement are robust to different choices of signal model. As a result, the 21-cm dipole signal is a valuable target for future observations and offers a robust cross-check on monopole measurements.