Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-09-08
New Astron.Rev. 48 (2004) 1039-1052
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
15 pages, 8 figures, to appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Re
Scientific paper
10.1016/j.newar.2004.09.034
We discuss the prospects for ``tomography'' of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshifts using the 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen. Existing observational constraints on the epoch of reionization imply a complex ionization history that may require multiple generations of sources. The 21 cm transition provides a unique tool to probe this era in detail, because it does not suffer from saturation effects, retains full redshift information, and directly probes the IGM gas. Observations in the redshifted 21cm line will allow one to study the history and morphology of reionization in detail. Depending on the characteristics of the first sources, they may also allow us to probe the era before reionization, when the first structures and luminous sources were forming. The construction of high signal-to-noise ratio maps on arcminute scales will require approximately one square kilometer of collecting area.
Briggs Frank
Furlanetto Steven
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