The 13th Edition of the Marseille Cosmology Conference Series
8-12 Jul 2019 Marseille (France)
Lyman-alpha intensity mapping during the epoch of reionization
Eli Visbal  1@  , Matthew Mcquinn  2@  
1 : Center for Computational Astrophysics, Simon's Foundation Flatiron Institute  (CCA)  -  Website
162 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003 -  United States
2 : University of Washington

Lyman-alpha is a particularly attractive line for intensity mapping during the epoch of reionization (EoR). In contrast to other galaxy lines such as CO(1-0) or CII, strong Lya emission can be produced without metals, which may not be abundant in small galaxies during reionization. I will present Lya intensity mapping simulations during the EoR that include the complex radiative transfer effects of Lya photons scattering through the neutral intergalactic medium. Utilizing a Monte Carlo approach to radiative transfer, we find that Lya scattering smooths spatial fluctuations in Lya intensity on small scales and that the spatial dependence of this smoothing depends strongly on the mean neutral fraction of the IGM. Thus, Lya intensity mapping is a promising way to measure the global reionization history. I will also discuss the signal-to-noise of future Lya intensity mapping observations with SPHEREx. I will show that by cross-correlating with galaxies it should be possible to accurately measure the Lya signal on large scales.

 

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