What it Takes to Measure Reionization with Fast Radio Bursts
Publication Date
2022-07-01Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics
ISSN
0004-637X
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
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Heimersheim, S., Sartorio, N. S., Fialkov, A., & Lorimer, D. R. (2022). What it Takes to Measure Reionization with Fast Radio Bursts. The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac70c9
Abstract
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are extra-galactic radio transients which exhibit a
distance-dependent dispersion of their signal, and thus can be used as
cosmological probes. In this article we, for the first time, apply a
model-independent approach to measure reionization from synthetic FRB data
assuming these signals are detected beyond redshift 5. This method allows us to
constrain the full shape of the reionization history as well as the CMB optical
depth $\tau$ while avoiding the problems of commonly used model-based
techniques. 100 localized FRBs, originating from redshifts 5-15, could
constrain (at 68% confidence level) the CMB optical depth to within 11%, and
the midpoint of reionization to 4%, surpassing current state-of-the-art CMB
bounds and quasar limits. Owing to the higher numbers of expected FRBs at lower
redshifts, the $\tau$ constraints are asymmetric (+14%, -7%) providing a much
stronger lower limit. Finally, we show that the independent constraints on
reionization from FRBs will improve limits on other cosmological parameters
such as the amplitude of the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations.
Keywords
310, Galaxies and Cosmology
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (2277533)
Identifiers
apjac70c9, ac70c9, aas36908
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac70c9
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/338735
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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