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Recovering the H II region size statistics from 21-cm tomography

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posted on 2023-06-09, 13:39 authored by Koki Kakiichi, Suman Majumdar, Garrelt Mellema, Benedetta Ciardi, Keri DixonKeri Dixon, Ilian IlievIlian Iliev, Vibor Jelic, Léon V E Koopmans, Saleem Zaroubi, Philipp Busch
We introduce a novel technique, called ‘granulometry’, to characterize and recover the mean size and the size distribution of HII regions from 21-cm tomography. The technique is easy to implement, but places the previously not very well-defined concept of morphology on a firm mathematical foundation. The size distribution of the cold spots in 21-cm tomography can be used as a direct tracer of the underlying probability distribution of HII region sizes.We explore the capability of the method using large-scale reionization simulations and mock observational data cubes while considering capabilities of SquareKilometreArray 1 (SKA1) lowand a future extension to SKA2. We show that the technique allows the recovery of the HII region size distribution with a moderate signal-to-noise ratio from wide-field imaging (SNR <~ 3), for which the statistical uncertainty is sample variance dominated. We address the observational requirements on the angular resolution, the field of view, and the thermal noise limit for a successful measurement. To achieve a full scientific return from 21-cm tomography and to exploit a synergy with 21-cm power spectra, we suggest an observing strategy using widefield imaging (several tens of square degrees) by an interferometric mosaicking/multibeam observation with additional intermediate baselines (~2-4 km) in an SKA phase 2.

Funding

Astronomy rolling grant; G0278; STFC-SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL; ST/I000976/1

STFC-SCIENCE AND TECHONOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL; ST/F002858/1

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

ISSN

0035-8711

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

2

Volume

471

Page range

1936-1954

Department affiliated with

  • Physics and Astronomy Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Astronomy Centre Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-06-06

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-06-06

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-06-06

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