Primordial Non-Gaussianity from the 21 cm Power Spectrum during the Epoch of Reionization

Shahab Joudaki, Olivier Doré, Luis Ferramacho, Manoj Kaplinghat, and Mario G. Santos

Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 131304 – Published 21 September 2011

Abstract

Primordial non-Gaussianity is a crucial test of inflationary cosmology. We consider the impact of non-Gaussianity on the ionization power spectrum from 21 cm emission at the epoch of reionization. We focus on the power spectrum on large scales at redshifts of 7 to 8 and explore the expected constraint on the local non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{NL}$ for current and next-generation 21 cm experiments. We show that experiments such as SKA and MWA could measure $f_{NL}$ values of order 10. This can be improved by an order of magnitude with a fast-Fourier transform telescope like Omniscope.

Received 19 May 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.131304

Authors & Affiliations

Shahab Joudaki¹, Olivier Doré^2,3, Luis Ferramacho^4,5, Manoj Kaplinghat¹, and Mario G. Santos⁶

¹Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
²Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
³California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
⁴CNRS, IRAP, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400, Toulouse, France
⁵Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, Toulouse, France
⁶CENTRA, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal