Standard Ruler at Cosmic Dawn.

Abstract

The matter in our Universe comes in two flavors: dark and baryonic. Of these, only the latter couples to photons, giving rise to the well-known baryon acoustic oscillations and, in the process, generating supersonic relative velocities between dark matter and baryons. These velocities-imprinted with the acoustic scale in their genesis-impede the formation of the first stars during cosmic dawn (z∼20), modulating the expected 21-cm signal from this era. In a companion paper we showed, combining numerical simulations and analytic models, that this modulation takes the form of robust velocity-induced acoustic oscillations (VAOs), with a well-understood shape that is frozen at recombination, and unaffected by the unknown astrophysics of star formation. Here we propose using these VAOs as a standard ruler at cosmic dawn. We find that three years of 21-cm power-spectrum data from the upcoming HERA interferometer should be able to measure the Hubble expansion rate H(z) at z=15-20 to percent-level precision, ranging from 0.3% to 11% depending on the strength of astrophysical feedback processes and foregrounds. This would provide a new handle on the expansion rate of our Universe during an otherwise unprobed epoch, opening a window to the mysterious cosmic-dawn era.