Exploring the cosmic 21-cm signal from the epoch of reionization using the wavelet scattering transform

Abstract

Detecting the cosmic 21-cm signal during the Epoch of Reionization and Cosmic Dawn will reveal insights into the properties of the first galaxies and advance cosmological parameter estimation. Until recently, the primary focus for astrophysical parameter inference from the 21-cm signal centred on the power spectrum (PS). However, the cosmic 21-cm signal is highly non-Gaussian rendering the PS suboptimal for characterizing the cosmic signal. In this work, we introduce a new technique to analyse the non-Gaussian information in images of the 21-cm signal called the Wavelet Scattering Transform (WST). This approach closely mirrors that of convolutional neural networks with the added advantage of..