Imaging HII Regions from galaxies and quasars during reionisation with SKA

Abstract

The ionisation structure of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM) during reionisation is sensitive to the unknown galaxy formation physics that prevailed at that time. This structure introduces non-Gaussian statistics into the redshifted 21 cm fluctuation amplitudes that can only be studied through tomographic imaging, which will clearly discriminate between different galaxy formation scenarios. Imaging the ionisation structure and cosmological HII regions during reionisation is therefore a key goal for the SKA. For example, the SKA1-LOW baseline design with a 1 km diameter core will resolve HII regions expected from galaxy formation models which include strong feedback on low-mass galaxy formation..