34 research outputs found
Two-Photon 2s<->1s Transitions during Recombination of Hydrogen in the Universe
Based on the standard cosmological model, we calculate the correction to the
rate of two-photon 2s1s transitions in the hydrogen atom under primordial
hydrogen plasma recombination conditions that arises when the induced
transitions under equilibrium background radiation with a blackbody spectrum
and plasma recombination radiation are taken into account.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
How well do we understand cosmological recombination?
The major theoretical limitation for extracting cosmological parameters from
the CMB sky lies in the precision with which we can calculate the cosmological
recombination process. Uncertainty in the details of hydrogen and helium
recombination could effectively increase the errors or bias the values of the
cosmological parameters derived from the Planck satellite, for example. Here we
modify the cosmological recombination code RECFAST by introducing one more
parameter to reproduce the recent numerical results for the speed-up of the
helium recombination. Together with the existing hydrogen fudge factor, we vary
these two parameters to account for the remaining dominant uncertainties in
cosmological recombination. By using the CosmoMC code with Planck forecast
data, we find that we need to determine the parameters to better than ten per
cent for He I and one per cent for H, in order to obtain negligible effects on
the cosmological parameters. For helium recombination, if the existing studies
have calculated the ionization fraction to the 0.1 per cent level by properly
including the relevant physical processes, then we already have numerical
calculations which are accurate enough for Planck. For hydrogen, setting the
fudge factor to speed up low redshift recombination by 14 per cent appears to
be sufficient for Planck. However, more work still needs to be done to carry
out comprehensive numerical calculations of all the relevant effects for
hydrogen, as well as to check for effects which couple hydrogen and helium
recombinaton through the radiation field.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; Paper revised according to the reviewer's
suggestions. An updated RECFAST (version 1.4) available at
http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/recfast.htm
Advanced Three Level Approximation for Numerical Treatment of Cosmological Recombination
New public numerical code for fast calculations of the cosmological
recombination of primordial hydrogen-helium plasma is presented. The code is
based on the three-level approximation (TLA) model of recombination and allows
us to take into account some fine physical effects of cosmological
recombination simultaneously with using fudge factors. The code can be found at
http://www.ioffe.ru/astro/QC/CMBR/atlant/atlant.htmlComment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, to be submitted to MNRA
Two-photon transitions in primordial hydrogen recombination
The subject of cosmological hydrogen recombination has received much
attention recently because of its importance to predictions for and
cosmological constraints from CMB observations. While the central role of the
two-photon decay 2s->1s has been recognized for many decades, high-precision
calculations require us to consider two-photon decays from the higher states
ns,nd->1s (n>=3). Simple attempts to include these processes in recombination
calculations have suffered from physical problems associated with sequences of
one-photon decays, e.g. 3d->2p->1s, that technically also produce two photons.
These correspond to resonances in the two-photon spectrum that are optically
thick, necessitating a radiative transfer calculation. We derive the
appropriate equations, develop a numerical code to solve them, and verify the
results by finding agreement with analytic approximations to the radiative
transfer equation. The related processes of Raman scattering and two-photon
recombination are included using similar machinery. Our results show that early
in recombination the two-photon decays act to speed up recombination, reducing
the free electron abundance by 1.3% relative to the standard calculation at
z=1300. However we find that some photons between Ly-alpha and Ly-beta are
produced, mainly by 3d->1s two-photon decay and 2s->1s Raman scattering. At
later times these photons redshift down to Ly-alpha, excite hydrogen atoms, and
act to slow recombination. Thus the free electron abundance is increased by
1.3% relative to the standard calculation at z=900. The implied correction to
the CMB power spectrum is neligible for the recently released WMAP and ACBAR
data, but at Fisher matrix level will be 7 sigma for Planck. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Matches PRD accepted version. 28 pages, 12 figure
Primordial helium recombination. I. Feedback, line transfer, and continuum opacity
Precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy on scales ℓ>500 will be available in the near future. Successful interpretation of these data is dependent on a detailed understanding of the damping tail and cosmological recombination of both hydrogen and helium. This paper and two companion papers are devoted to a precise calculation of helium recombination. We discuss several aspects of the standard recombination picture, and then include feedback, radiative transfer in He i lines with partial redistribution, and continuum opacity from H i photoionization. In agreement with past calculations, we find that He ii recombination proceeds in Saha equilibrium, whereas He i recombination is delayed relative to Saha due to the low rates connecting excited states of He i to the ground state. However, we find that at z<2200 the continuum absorption by the rapidly increasing H i population becomes effective at destroying photons in the He i 21Po-11S line, causing He i recombination to finish around z≃1800, much earlier than previously estimated