カナダの望遠鏡が宇宙最初期の水素の輝きを直接マッピング、宇宙への新たな窓を開く(Canadian telescope directly maps earliest glow of hydrogen, opening a new window on the universe)

2026-09-28 カナダ・ブリティッシュコロンビア大学(UBC)

カナダの電波望遠鏡CHIME(Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment)が、宇宙が約50億歳だった時代の中性水素が放つ微弱な電波(21cm線)を、他の望遠鏡のデータと組み合わせずに直接検出・マッピングすることに初めて成功した。CHIMEは北天全体を毎日観測し、水素の分布を大規模に捉えることで、宇宙の膨張史や暗黒エネルギーを調べるための新しい手段を提供する。今回の信号は2019年の94夜分の観測データから、高度なデータ処理によって膨大な雑音から抽出され、1年以上かけて検証された。解析では当時の宇宙の水素の約2%が中性原子状態だったことが示され、水素の空間分布・集積を通じて銀河の形成・進化を研究できる可能性も示された。今後、約7年分の観測データを用いて、さらに若い宇宙まで遡った解析が進められる。

カナダの望遠鏡が宇宙最初期の水素の輝きを直接マッピング、宇宙への新たな窓を開く(Canadian telescope directly maps earliest glow of hydrogen, opening a new window on the universe)
A view of CHIME at night, with the Milky Way in the background. Photo credit: CHIME collaboration.

<関連情報>

カナダ水素強度マッピング実験によるz ∼ 1における宇宙論的21cm信号の自己相関検出 Detection of the Cosmological 21 cm Signal in Autocorrelation at z  ∼  1 with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

The CHIME Collaboration, Mandana Amiri, Kevin Bandura, Arnab Chakraborty, Jean-François Cliche, Matt Dobbs, Simon Foreman, Liam Gray, Mark Halpern, Alex S Hill,…
The Astrophysical Journal  Published: 2026 September 28
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ae9835

Abstract

We present the first detection of the cosmological 21 cm intensity mapping signal in autocorrelation at z ∼ 1 with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Using 94 nights of observation, we have measured the 21 cm auto power spectrum over a frequency range of 608.2–707.8 MHz (z = 1.34–1.01) at 0.4 h Mpc−1 ≲ k ≲ 1.5 h Mpc−1, with a detection significance of 12.4σ. Our analysis employs significant improvements to the CHIME data processing pipeline compared to previous work, including novel radio frequency interference detection and masking algorithms, achromatic beamforming techniques, and foreground filtering before time averaging to minimize spectral leakage. We establish the robustness and reliability of our detection through a comprehensive suite of validation tests. We also measure the 21 cm signal in two independent sub-bands centered at z ∼ 1.08 and z ∼ 1.24 with detection significance of 8.6σ and 9.1σ, respectively. We briefly discuss the theoretical interpretation of these measurements in terms of a power spectrum model, deferring the details to a companion paper. This auto power spectrum detection demonstrates CHIME’s capability to probe large-scale structure through 21 cm intensity mapping without reliance on external galaxy surveys.


カナダ水素強度マッピング実験によるz ∼ 1における21cm自己パワースペクトル測定の解釈 Interpretation of 21 cm Autopower Spectrum Measurement at z ∼ 1 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

Mandana Amiri, Kevin Bandura, Arnab Chakraborty, Zhuo Yu Brian Chu, Matt Dobbs, Simon Foreman, Liam Gray, Mark Halpern, Gary Hinshaw, Albin Joseph,…
The Astrophysical Journal  Published: 2026 September 28
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ae9747

Abstract

Observations with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) have been used to measure the 21 cm intensity mapping autopower spectrum, at z ∼ 1, over a frequency range from 608.2 to 707.8 MHz at wavenumbers 0.4 h Mpc−1 ≲ k ≲ 1.5 h Mpc−1. In this paper, we present the results of two different approaches to interpreting this measurement. In the first approach, we use a parametric power spectrum model to constrain an amplitude parameter, defined asA2HI≡106Ω2H(b2H +<fμ2>)2, where ΩHI is the cosmological density parameter for atomic hydrogen (H I), bHI is the linear bias for H I, and 〈fμ2〉 incorporates the dominant large-scale impact of redshift-space distortions on the angle-averaged power spectrum. Imposing an additional prior on either ΩHI or bHI, based on values in the literature, allows us to break the pairwise degeneracy between those two parameters. In the second approach, we compare CHIME’s measurement with predictions for the power spectrum of H I from the IllustrisTNG simulations, finding that the measurement disagrees with the TNG100 run at 3.1σ and the TNG300 run at 4.0σ. The disagreement is likely attributable to the effects of nonlinear H I clustering and redshift-space distortions in the simulations, rather than the total abundance of H I, and invites further investigation of the physical processes in the simulations that determine the behavior of H I at nonlinear scales. These results exemplify the ability of 21 cm intensity mapping to provide astrophysical information using measurements at nonlinear scales.

1701物理及び化学
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