The contribution of the IGM and minihalos to the 21 cm signal of reionization

Bin Yue, Benedetta Ciardi, Evan Scannapieco, Xuelei Chen

Published 2009-06-17Version 1

We study the statistical properties of the cosmological 21 cm signal from both the intergalactic medium (IGM) and minihalos, using a reionization simulation that includes a self--consistent treatment of minihalo photoevaporation. We consider two models for minihalo formation and three typical thermal states of the IGM -- heating purely by ionization, heating from both ionizing and $\rm Ly\alpha$ photons, and a maximal "strong heating" model. We find that the signal from the IGM is almost always dominant over that from minihalos. In our calculation, the differential brightness temperature, ${\delta}T_b,$ of minihalos is never larger than 2 mK. Although there are indeed some differences in the signals from the minihalos and from the IGM, even with the planned generation of radio telescopes it will be unfeasible to detect them. However, minihalos significantly affect the ionization state of the IGM and the corresponding 21 cm flux.