Cosmological constraints from the power spectrum and bispectrum of 21cm intensity maps

Abstract

The 21cm emission of neutral hydrogen is a potential probe of the matter distribution in the Universe after reionisation. Cosmological surveys of this line intensity will be conducted in the coming years by the SKAO and HIRAX experiments, complementary to upcoming galaxy surveys. We present the first forecasts of the cosmological constraints from the combination of the 21cm power spectrum and bispectrum. Fisher forecasts are computed for the constraining power of these surveys on cosmological parameters, the BAO distance functions and the growth function. We also estimate the constraining power on dynamical dark energy and modified gravity. Finally we investigate the constraints on the 21cm clustering bias, up to second order. We take into account the effects on the 21cm correlators of the telescope beam, instrumental noise and foreground avoidance, as well as the Alcock-Paczynski effect and the effects of theoretical errors in the modelling of the correlators.