21cmfast: a fast, seminumerical simulation of the high-redshift 21-cm signal

We introduce a powerful seminumeric modelling tool, 21CMFAST, designed to efficiently simulate the cosmological 21-cm signal. Our code generates 3D realizations of evolved density, ionization, peculiar velocity and spin temperature fields, which it then combines to compute the 21-cm brightness temperature. Although the physical processes are treated with approximate methods, we compare our results to a state-of-the-art large-scale hydrodynamic simulation, and find good agreement on scales pertinent to the upcoming observations ( 1 Mpc). The power spectra from 21CMFAST agree with those generated from the numerical simulation to within 10s of per cent, down to the Nyquist frequency. We show results from a 1-Gpc…

• DA
  David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: NNG06GI09G, NAS 5-26555, NNA09DB30A, 5-26555, NNX08AH31G
• ST
  Space Telescope Science Institute

  Awards: NAS 5-26555, 5-26555, 26555