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Title: Standard Ruler at Cosmic Dawn

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
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The matter in our Universe comes in two flavors: dark and baryonic. Of these, only the latter couples to photons, giving rise to the well-known baryon acoustic oscillations and, in the process, generating supersonic relative velocities between dark matter and baryons. These velocities—imprinted with the acoustic scale in their genesis—impede the formation of the first stars during cosmic dawn (z ~ 20), modulating the expected 21-cm signal from this era. In a companion paper we showed, combining numerical simulations and analytic models, that this modulation takes the form of robust velocity-induced acoustic oscillations (VAOs), with a well-understood shape that is frozen at recombination, and unaffected by the unknown astrophysics of star formation. Here we propose using these VAOs as a standard ruler at cosmic dawn. We find that three years of 21-cm power-spectrum data from the upcoming HERA interferometer should be able to measure the Hubble expansion rate H(z) at z = 15–20 to percent-level precision, ranging from 0.3% to 11% depending on the strength of astrophysical feedback processes and foregrounds. Furthermore, this would provide a new handle on the expansion rate of our Universe during an otherwise unprobed epoch, opening a window to the mysterious cosmic-dawn era.

Research Organization:
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019018
OSTI ID:
1613062
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1566935
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 13; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 33 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Confirmation of a Star Formation Bias in Type Ia Supernova Distances and Its Effect on the Measurement of the Hubble Constant text January 2015
Large-scale BAO signatures of the smallest galaxies text January 2010
Resolving the Formation of Protogalaxies. III. Feedback from the First Stars text January 2007
How accurately can 21 cm tomography constrain cosmology? text January 2008
Relative velocity of dark matter and baryonic fluids and the formation of the first structures text January 2010
Bright Source Subtraction Requirements For Redshifted 21 cm Measurements text January 2010
Effect of Streaming Motion of Baryons Relative to Dark Matter on the Formation of the First Stars text January 2010
A Sensitivity and Array-Configuration Study for Measuring the Power Spectrum of 21cm Emission from Reionization text January 2011
Simulations of Early Baryonic Structure Formation with Stream Velocity: I. Halo Abundance text January 2011
The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20 text January 2012
Simulations of Early Baryonic Structure Formation with Stream Velocity: II. The Gas Fraction text January 2012
What Next-Generation 21 cm Power Spectrum Measurements Can Teach Us About the Epoch of Reionization text January 2013
A new light on 21 cm intensity fluctuations from the dark ages text January 2013
The observable signature of late heating of the Universe during cosmic reionization text January 2014
The X-ray spectra of the first galaxies: 21cm signatures text January 2014
The Impact of Foregrounds on Redshift Space Distortion Measurements With the Highly-Redshifted 21 cm Line text January 2014
The Information Content of Anisotropic Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Scale Measurements preprint January 2015
Reconstructing the nature of the first cosmic sources from the anisotropic 21-cm signal text January 2015
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO measurement from the LOS-dependent power spectrum of DR12 BOSS galaxies text January 2015
A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant text January 2016
A fresh look at linear cosmological constraints on a decaying dark matter component text January 2016
21CMMC with a 3D light-cone: the impact of the co-evolution approximation on the astrophysics of reionisation and cosmic dawn text January 2018
The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measurement of the growth rate of structure from the anisotropic correlation function between redshift 0.8 and 2.2 text January 2018
21-cm Fluctuations from Charged Dark Matter text January 2018
The Influence of Streaming Velocities on the Formation of the First Stars text January 2018
Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM text January 2019
Robust Velocity-induced Acoustic Oscillations at Cosmic Dawn text January 2019
Simulations of Pregalactic Structure Formation with Radiative Feedback text January 2000
In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe text January 2000
Second-Generation Objects in the Universe: Radiative Cooling and Collapse of Halos with Virial Temperatures Above 10^4 Kelvin text January 2001
The First Stars text January 2003
A Method for Separating the Physics from the Astrophysics of High-Redshift 21cm Fluctuations text January 2004
Separating out the Alcock-Paczynski Effect on 21cm Fluctuations text January 2005
Was Star-Formation Suppressed in High-Redshift Minihalos? text January 2006
Population III star formation in a Lambda CDM universe, I: The effect of formation redshift and environment on protostellar accretion rate text January 2006
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Cited By (3)

Cosmic Expansion History from Line-Intensity Mapping journal December 2019
Robust Velocity-induced Acoustic Oscillations at Cosmic Dawn text January 2019
The Cosmic Expansion History from Line-Intensity Mapping text January 2019

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