Minkowski Functionals of the 21 cm Signal as a Probe of Primordial Features

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Minkowski Functionals applied to 21 cm signals can effectively detect and distinguish primordial inflationary features from EoR effects, offering a new method for probing early universe physics with upcoming surveys.

Contribution

The study introduces the use of Minkowski Functionals on 21 cm simulations to identify inflationary features and separate them from EoR effects, advancing cosmological analysis techniques.

Findings

Minkowski Functionals are highly sensitive to primordial feature amplitude and scale.

MF analysis can distinguish inflationary features from standard models.

Combining MFs across redshifts helps disentangle primordial and EoR signatures.

Abstract

The redshifted 21 cm signal from the cosmic dawn and Epoch of Reionization (EoR) encodes important information about both astrophysical processes and primordial physics, such as inflation. In this work, we use morphological statistics to explore the sensitivity of the 21 cm signal to inflationary features and EoR dynamics simultaneously. Focusing on primordial features from particle production during inflation we generate semi-numerical simulations of the 21 cm signal across redshifts 5 < z < 35, incorporating these features. Using Minkowski Functionals (MFs), we analyze the morphology of 21 cm fields: density, neutral hydrogen fraction, spin temperature, and brightness temperature. We demonstrate that MFs are highly sensitive to both the amplitude and scale of primordial features, capturing rich morphological information. In particular, we show that MFs can robustly identify inflationary features and distinguish them from the standard model. We further explore various EoR scenarios, and demonstrate that combining MFs across redshifts can disentangle the signatures of primordial features from EoR effects. This approach opens new avenues for probing inflation with upcoming 21 cm surveys.