Intergalactic heating by Lyman-alpha photons including hyperfine
  structure corrections
  Lyman-alpha photons from the first radiating sources in the Universe play a
pivotal role in 21-cm radio detections of Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of
Reionization. Comments are provided on the effect of the hyperfine structure of
hydrogen on the rate of heating or cooling of the Intergalactic Medium. It is
shown that heating of the still neutral hydrogen by the Cosmic Microwave
Background is negligible, with a characteristic heating time of 1e27 s/ (1+z)
at redshift z.
