Insights from probability distribution functions of intensity maps

Abstract In the next few years, intensity-mapping surveys that target lines such as CO, Lyα and C ii stand to provide powerful probes of high-redshift astrophysics. However, these line emissions are highly non-Gaussian, and so the typical power-spectrum methods used to study these maps will leave ou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 467; no. 3; pp. 2996 - 3010
Main Authors: Breysse, Patrick C., Kovetz, Ely D., Behroozi, Peter S., Dai, Liang, Kamionkowski,  Marc
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 01.06.2017
Subjects:
galaxies: high-redshift
cosmology: theory
ISSN:0035-8711, 1365-2966
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Abstract In the next few years, intensity-mapping surveys that target lines such as CO, Lyα and C ii stand to provide powerful probes of high-redshift astrophysics. However, these line emissions are highly non-Gaussian, and so the typical power-spectrum methods used to study these maps will leave out a significant amount of information. We propose a new statistic, the probability distribution of voxel intensities, which can access this extra information. Using a model of a CO intensity map at z ∼ 3 as an example, we demonstrate that this voxel intensity distribution (VID) provides substantial constraining power beyond what is obtainable from the power spectrum alone. We find that a future survey is similar to the planned CO Mapping Array Pathfinder (COMAP). Full experiment could constrain the CO luminosity function to the order of ∼10 per cent. We also explore the effects of contamination from continuum emission, interloper lines and gravitational lensing on our constraints and find that the VID statistic retains significant constraining power even in pessimistic scenarios.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stx203