Prospects for cosmological research using hundred-meter-class radio telescopes: 21-cm intensity mapping survey strategies with QTT, JRT, and HRT

Abstract

Understanding dark energy requires precision measurements of the expansion history of the universe and the growth of large-scale structure. The 21 cm intensity mapping (21 cm IM) technique enables rapid large-area surveys that can deliver these measurements. China is constructing three hundred-meter-class single-dish radio telescopes, including the QiTai 110 m Radio Telescope (QTT), the 120 m Jingdong Radio Telescope (JRT), and the 120 m Huadian Radio Telescope (HRT), whose designs are well suited for 21 cm IM cosmology. We use a Fisher-to-MCMC forecasting framework to evaluate the baryon acoustic oscillations / redshift space distortions (BAO/RSD) measurement capabilities of QTT, JRT, and HRT and propagate them to dark-energy constraints in the $w_0w_a$CDM model. Our results show that achieving a redshift coverage up to $z_{\mathrm{max}} = 1$ is crucial for fully realising the potential of hundred-meter-class single-dish telescopes for 21 cm cosmology. If all three telescopes carry out 21 cm IM surveys over the same redshift range up to $z_{\mathrm{max}}=1$ and combine their BAO/RSD measurements, QTT+JRT+HRT yield $\sigma(w_0)=0.094$ and $\sigma(w_a)=0.487$, providing tighter constraints than DESI DR2 results.