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Impact of Ly$\alpha$ heating on the global 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn

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(2019)cite arxiv:1904.09999Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRAS.

Abstract

The resonance scattering of Ly$\alpha$ photons with neutral hydrogen atoms in the IGM not only couples the spin temperature to the kinetic temperature but also leads to a heating of the gas. We investigate the impact of this heating on the average brightness temperature of the 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn in the context of the claimed detection by the EDGES low-band experiment. We model the evolution of the global signal taking into account the Ly$\alpha$ coupling and heating and a cooling which can be stronger than the Hubble cooling. Using the claimed detection at $z17$ from the EDGES low-band observations as a constraint, we find that a strong Ly$\alpha$ background is ruled out. Instead the results favour a weak Ly$\alpha$ background combined with an excess cooling mechanism which is substantially stronger than previously considered.

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