English

Cosmology with Multi-Wavelength Line Intensity Mapping Synergies in the SKAO Era

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-06-29 v1

Abstract

Line intensity mapping (LIM) has emerged as a powerful tool for surveying the large-scale structure of the Universe across cosmic time by measuring spatial fluctuations in the cumulative emission of spectral lines from unresolved sources or the intergalactic medium. Besides the most abundant 21-cm hyperfine line of neutral hydrogen, there are bright far-infrared fine-structure lines like [CII] 158 μ\mum, [OIII] 88 μ\mum, [NII] 122/205 μ\mum, and [OI] 63 μ\mum, as well as mid-/high-JJ CO rotational transitions, hydrogen Lyα\alpha and Hα\alpha as potential LIM probes. A key opportunity lies in combining and cross-correlating 21-cm intensity maps from SKAO with other line intensity maps, targeted by a range of ongoing and forthcoming LIM experiments that probe overlapping cosmic volumes. Cross-correlation between 21-cm maps and other line tracers mitigates uncorrelated systematics and enhances sensitivity to the underlying matter distribution, while multi-line analyses help disentangle cosmological and astrophysical parameters. Beyond cross-power spectra, higher-order and morphological statistics -- such as cross-bispectra, marked correlations, and morphological measures -- capture non-Gaussian features and the environmental dependence of structure formation. This chapter explores the synergies that can be achieved by combining SKAO observations with other line-intensity mapping experiments, demonstrating how such joint analyses can unlock new insights into galaxy evolution and cosmology.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.30224,
  title  = {Cosmology with Multi-Wavelength Line Intensity Mapping Synergies in the SKAO Era},
  author = {Debanjan Sarkar and Suman Majumdar and Chandra Shekhar Murmu and Leon Noble and Manas Mohit Dosibhatla and Vishrut Pandya and José Luis Bernal and Yashrajsinh Mahida and Mohd Kamran and Caroline S. Heneka and Anshuman Tripathi and Samit Kumar Pal and Gabriella De Lucia and Fabio Fontanot and Matteo Viel and Marta Spinelli and Parth Kothari and Sarah Libanore and Abinash Kumar Shaw and Martin Sahlen and José Fonseca and Abhirup Datta and Ziad Sakr and Wenkai Hu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.30224},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Published in Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA II (AASKAII), 2026 (arXiv:2606.20366). Report-no:AASKAII/Sarkar01. Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA II (AASKAII) outlines the transformative scientific advances that will be enabled by the SKA telescopes