Illuminating the Universe : New Probes of Reionization and Cosmology

We model the epoch of hydrogen reionisation of the universe, using analytic as well as numerical methods. In a detailed statistical analysis of our results, we find good agreement in the alternative descriptions of the morphology of ionized regions. We use the simulations to make predictions for reionisation observables that should be accessible within a few years years: the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and fluctuations in the 21 cm spin flip transition of neutral hydrogen. We also propose to use the 21 cm signal to constrain cosmological parameters by probing the matter power spectrum. We also make use of the observable as s source screen for gravitational lensing by large scale structure, and develop a formalism to extract the lens distribution from the characteristics of the lensed 21 cm field.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Heidelberg

Year

2007

Author dc:creator

• Zahn, Oliver

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bartelmann, Matthias

Repository record source_url

http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/7091

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de:7091