Beyond the power spectrum: A new framework for nonstationary fields with applications to light-cone effects in line intensity mapping
Phys. Rev. D 113, 063544 – Published 18 March, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tp8r-pfdw
Abstract
Modern cosmological surveys cover extremely large volumes and map fluctuations on scales reaching gigaparsecs. As a result, it is no longer a valid assumption to ignore cosmological evolution along the line of sight from one end of the survey to the other. When extracting cosmological information, the power spectrum becomes suboptimal because it relies on the assumption of translational invariance of the observed field. For example, during the epoch of reionization, the 21 cm brightness temperature field on the nearby (low-redshift) end of a large survey volume exhibits statistical properties that differ significantly from those at the far (high-redshift) end. To overcome these limitations, we have developed an eigen decomposition-inspired non-Fourier basis that captures evolution effects. Our work demonstrates that using this new basis integrated in a new summary statistic yields tighter constraints on astrophysical parameters compared to the traditional power spectrum. Additionally, we provide an illustrative example and a practical guide for applying this basis in the context of a realistic forecast for interferometers such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array.
