The Relative Constraining Power of the High-<i>z</i> 21 cm Dipole and Monopole Signals

Abstract The 21 cm background is a promising probe of early star formation and black hole activity. While a slew of experiments on the ground seek to detect the 21 cm monopole and spatial fluctuations on large ∼10′ scales, little work has been done on the prospects for detecting the 21 cm dipole signal or its utility as a probe of early galaxies. Though an intrinsically weak signal relative to the monopole, its direction is known well from the cosmic microwave background and wide-field surveys; furthermore, as a relative measurement the dipole could help relax instrumental requirements. In order to understand the constraining power of the dipole, in this work we perform parameter inference on mock data sets that include the dipole, the monopole, or both signals. We find that while the monopole does provide the best constraints for a given integration time, constraints from a dipole measurement are competitive and can in principle constrain the cosmic star formation rate density and efficiency of X-ray photon production in early z ∼ 15 galaxies to better than a factor of ∼2. This result holds for most of the available prior volume, which is set by constraints on galaxy luminosity functions, the reionization history, and upper limits from 21 cm power spectrum experiments. We also find that predictions for the monopole from a dipole measurement are robust to different choices of signal model. As a result, the 21 cm dipole signal is a valuable target for future observations and offers a robust cross-check on monopole measurements.