24–28 Aug 2026
Leiden University
Europe/Zurich timezone

Probing the Epoch of Reionization by reconstructing the velocity contribution to the patchy kSZ signal from 21-cm maps

Not scheduled
20m
Gorlaeus gebouw (Leiden University)

Gorlaeus gebouw

Leiden University

Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC Leiden
Talk Cosmic Microwave Background

Speaker

Jelte Bottema (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & Stellenbosch University)

Description

Distinguishing between different reionisation histories requires observables that are sensitive to the timing and morphology of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We present a method to reconstruct redshift-dependent line-of-sight velocity fields from the 21-cm signal and use them to construct patchy kinematic Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (kSZ) maps that can be cross-correlated with the observed kSZ signal. Unlike approaches that square the kSZ field to remove velocity sign cancellations, our method preserves directional phase information, enabling a first-order cross-correlation. As reionization progresses, this cross-correlation changes sign when ionisation fluctuations begin to dominate the 21-cm signal. The evolution of the cross-correlator at $\ell = 3000$ distinguishes between different EoR models. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that 21-cm based kSZ reconstruction provides a promising avenue for probing the timing and duration of the EoR.

Other topic / keywords: 21-cm, kSZ, Epoch of Reionization

Author

Jelte Bottema (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & Stellenbosch University)

Co-authors

Daan Meerburg Raghunath Ghara Prof. Saleem Zaroubi (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & Open University of Israel) Yin-Zhe Ma (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

Presentation materials

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