Prospects for detecting C II emission during the epoch of reionization
- CENTRA, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisboa 1049-001 (Portugal)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 (United States)
We produce simulations of the atomic C ii line emission in large sky fields in order to determine the current and future prospects for mapping this line during the high-redshift epoch of reionization. We calculate the C ii line intensity, redshift evolution, and spatial fluctuations using observational relations between C ii emission and the galaxy star formation rate over the frequency range 200–300 GHz. We estimate an averaged intensity of I{sub C II}=(4±2)×10{sup 2} Jy sr{sup −1} in the redshift range z ∼ 5.3−8.5. Observations of the C ii emission in this frequency range will suffer contamination from emission lines at lower redshifts, in particular CO rotational lines. Using simulations, we estimated the CO contamination to be I{sub CO}≈10{sup 3} Jy sr{sup −1} (originating from galaxies at z < 2.5). Using detailed simulations of the C ii and CO emission across a range of redshifts, we generate maps as a function of angle and frequency, fully taking into account this resolution and light-cone effects. In order to reduce the foreground contamination, we find that we should mask galaxies below redshifts ∼2.5 with a CO(J:2–1) to CO(J:6–5) line flux density higher than 5× 10{sup −22} W m{sup −2} or an AB magnitude lower than m{sub K}=22. We estimate that the additional continuum contamination originating in emission from stars and in dust, free–free, free–bound, and two-photon emission in the interstellar medium is of the order of 10{sup 5} Jy sr{sup −1}, which is well above the expected C ii signal. We also consider the possibility of cross-correlating foreground lines with galaxy surveys in order to probe the intensity of the foregrounds. Finally, we discuss the expected constraints from two experiments capable of measuring the expected C ii power spectrum.
- OSTI ID:
- 22883027
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 806, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Since 2009, the country of publication for this journal is the UK.; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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