Measuring the Small-Scale Power Spectrum of Cosmic Density Fluctuations through 21 cm Tomography Prior to the Epoch of Structure Formation

Abraham Loeb and Matias Zaldarriaga
Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 211301 – Published 25 May 2004

Abstract

The thermal evolution of the cosmic gas decoupled from that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a redshift z200. Afterwards and before the first stars had formed, the cosmic neutral hydrogen absorbed the CMB flux at its resonant 21 cm spin-flip transition. We calculate the evolution of the spin temperature for this transition and the resulting anisotropies that are imprinted on the CMB sky due to linear density fluctuations during this epoch. These anisotropies, at an observed wavelength of 10.56[(1+z)/50]   m, contain an amount of information that is orders of magnitude larger than any other cosmological probe.

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  • Received 4 December 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.211301

©2004 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Abraham Loeb1 and Matias Zaldarriaga2

  • 1Astronomy Department, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Physics Department, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 0213, USA

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 21 — 28 May 2004

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