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1. Investigating Mutual Coupling in the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array and Mitigating its Effects on the 21-cm Power Spectrum

Author

Rath, E., Pascua, R., Josaitis, A. T., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Acedo, E. de Lera, Martinot, Z. E., Abdurashidova, Z., Adams, T., Aguirre, J. E., Baartman, R., Beardsley, A. P., Berkhout, L. M., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bull, P., Burba, J., Byrne, R., Carey, S., Chen, K. -F., Choudhuri, S., Cox, T., DeBoer, D. R., Dexter, M., Dillon, J. S., Dynes, S., Eksteen, N., Ely, J., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Garsden, H., Gehlot, B. K., Ghosh, A., Gorce, A., Gorthi, D., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Huang, T., Jacobs, D. C., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Liu, A., Ma, Y. -Z., MacMahon, D. H. E., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Malgas, K., Marero, B., McBride, L., Mesinger, A., Mohamed-Hinds, N., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Murray, S. G., Nikolic, B., Nuwegeld, H., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., La Plante, P., Qin, Y., Razavi-Ghods, N., Riley, D., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Singh, S., Storer, D., Swarts, H., Tan, J., Wilensky, M. J., Williams, P. K. G., van Wyngaarden, P., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

Interferometric experiments designed to detect the highly redshifted 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen are producing increasingly stringent constraints on the 21-cm power spectrum, but some k-modes remain systematics-dominated. Mutual coupling is a major systematic that must be overcome in order to detect the 21-cm signal, and simulations that reproduce effects seen in the data can guide strategies for mitigating mutual coupling. In this paper, we analyse 12 nights of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array and compare the data against simulations that include a computationally efficient and physically motivated semi-analytic treatment of mutual coupling. We find that simulated coupling features qualitatively agree with coupling features in the data; however, coupling features in the data are brighter than the simulated features, indicating the presence of additional coupling mechanisms not captured by our model. We explore the use of fringe-rate filters as mutual coupling mitigation tools and use our simulations to investigate the effects of mutual coupling on a simulated cosmological 21-cm power spectrum in a "worst case" scenario where the foregrounds are particularly bright. We find that mutual coupling contaminates a large portion of the "EoR Window", and the contamination is several orders-of-magnitude larger than our simulated cosmic signal across a wide range of cosmological Fourier modes. While our fiducial fringe-rate filtering strategy reduces mutual coupling by roughly a factor of 100 in power, a non-negligible amount of coupling cannot be excised with fringe-rate filters, so more sophisticated mitigation strategies are required., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Published
2024

2. Simulations of primary beam effects on the cosmic bispectrum phase observed with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Charles, N., Bernardi, G., Bester, H. L., Smirnov, O. M., Carilli, C., Keller, P. M., Kern, N., Nikolic, B., Thyagarajan, N., Acedo, E. de Lera, Fagnoni, N., and Santos, M. G.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The 21~cm transition from neutral Hydrogen promises to be the best observational probe of the Epoch of Reionisation. The main difficulty in measuring the 21 cm signal is the presence of bright foregrounds that require very accurate interferometric calibration. Closure quantities may circumvent the calibration requirements but may be, however, affected by direction dependent effects, particularly antenna primary beam responses. This work investigates the impact of antenna primary beams affected by mutual coupling on the closure phase and its power spectrum. Our simulations show that primary beams affected by mutual coupling lead to a leakage of foreground power into the EoR window, which can be up to $\sim4$ orders magnitude higher than the case where no mutual coupling is considered. This leakage is, however, essentially confined at $k < 0.3$~$h$~Mpc$^{-1}$ for triads that include 29~m baselines. The leakage magnitude is more pronounced when bright foregrounds appear in the antenna sidelobes, as expected. Finally, we find that triads that include mutual coupling beams different from each other have power spectra similar to triads that include the same type of mutual coupling beam, indicating that beam-to-beam variation within triads (or visibility pairs) is not the major source of foreground leakage in the EoR window.

Published
2021
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3. Radio antenna design for sky-averaged 21 cm cosmology experiments: the REACH case

Author

Cumner, J., Acedo, E. De Lera, de Villiers, D. I. L., Anstey, D., Kolitsidas, C. I., Gurdon, B., Fagnoni, N., Alexander, P., Bernardi, G., Bevins, H. T. J., Carey, S., Cavillot, J., Chiello, R., Craeye, C., Croukamp, W., Ely, J. A., Fialkov, A., Gessey-Jones, T., Gueuning, Q., Handley, W., Hills, R., Josaitis, A. T., Kulkarni, G., Magro, A., Maiolino, R., Meerburg, P. D., Mittal, S., Pritchard, J. R., Puchwein, E., Razavi-Ghods, N., Roque, I. L. V., Saxena, A., Scheutwinkel, K. H., Shen, E., Sims, P. H., Smirnov, O., Spinelli, M., and Zarb-Adami, K.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Following the reported detection of an absorption profile associated with the 21~cm sky-averaged signal from the Cosmic Dawn by the EDGES experiment in 2018, a number of experiments have been set up to verify this result. This paper discusses the design process used for global 21~cm experiments, focusing specifically on the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH). This experiment will seek to understand and compensate for systematic errors present using detailed modelling and characterization of the instrumentation. There is detailed the quantitative figures of merit and numerical modelling used to assist the design process of the REACH dipole antenna (one of the 2 antenna designs for REACH Phase I). This design process produced a 2.5:1 frequency bandwidth dipole. The aim of this design was to balance spectral smoothness and low impedance reflections with the ability to describe and understand the antenna response to the sky signal to inform the critically important calibration during observation and data analysis., Comment: 32 pages, 30 figures, to be submitted to the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation

Published
2021

4. Understanding the HERA Phase i receiver system with simulations and its impact on the detectability of the EoR delay power spectrum

Author

Fagnoni, N, De Lera Acedo, E, Deboer, DR, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Dexter, M, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kim, H, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Plante, PL, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mena Parra, J, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
instrumentation: interferometers, methods: numerical, techniques: interferometric, telescopes, dark ages, reionization, first stars, astro-ph.IM, dark ages, reionization, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Abstract

The detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) delay power spectrum using a 'foreground avoidance method' highly depends on the instrument chromaticity. The systematic effects induced by the radio telescope spread the foreground signal in the delay domain, which contaminates the EoR window theoretically observable. Applied to the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), this paper combines detailed electromagnetic and electrical simulations in order to model the chromatic effects of the instrument, and quantify its frequency and time responses. In particular, the effects of the analogue receiver, transmission cables, and mutual coupling are included. These simulations are able to accurately predict the intensity of the reflections occurring in the 150-m cable which links the antenna to the backend. They also show that electromagnetic waves can propagate from one dish to another one through large sections of the array due to mutual coupling. The simulated system time response is attenuated by a factor 104 after a characteristic delay which depends on the size of the array and on the antenna position. Ultimately, the system response is attenuated by a factor 105 after 1400 ns because of the reflections in the cable, which corresponds to characterizable ka-modes above 0.7 $h\,\,\rm {Mpc}^{-1}$ at 150 MHz. Thus, this new study shows that the detection of the EoR signal with HERA Phase I will be more challenging than expected. On the other hand, it improves our understanding of the telescope, which is essential to mitigate the instrument chromaticity.

Published
2021

5. Detection of cosmic structures using the bispectrum phase. II. First results from application to cosmic reionization using the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Thyagarajan, N, Carilli, CL, Nikolic, B, Kent, J, Mesinger, A, Kern, NS, Bernardi, G, Matika, S, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carey, S, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
astro-ph.CO, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

Characterizing the epoch of reionization (EoR) at z 6 via the redshifted 21 cm line of neutral Hydrogen (H i) is critical to modern astrophysics and cosmology, and thus a key science goal of many current and planned low-frequency radio telescopes. The primary challenge to detecting this signal is the overwhelmingly bright foreground emission at these frequencies, placing stringent requirements on the knowledge of the instruments and inaccuracies in analyses. Results from these experiments have largely been limited not by thermal sensitivity but by systematics, particularly caused by the inability to calibrate the instrument to high accuracy. The interferometric bispectrum phase is immune to antenna-based calibration and errors therein, and presents an independent alternative to detect the EoR H i fluctuations while largely avoiding calibration systematics. Here, we provide a demonstration of this technique on a subset of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to place approximate constraints on the brightness temperature of the intergalactic medium (IGM). From this limited data, at z=7.7 we infer "1σ"upper limits on the IGM brightness temperature to be ≤ 316 "pseudo"mK at κ =0.33 "pseudo"h Mpc-1 (data-limited) and ≤ 1000 "pseudo"mK at κ =0.875 "pseudo"h Mpc-1 (noise-limited). The "pseudo"units denote only an approximate and not an exact correspondence to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. By propagating models in parallel to the data analysis, we confirm that the dynamic range required to separate the cosmic H i signal from the foregrounds is similar to that in standard approaches, and the power spectrum of the bispectrum phase is still data-limited (at 106 dynamic range) indicating scope for further improvement in sensitivity as the array build-out continues.

Published
2020

6. Foreground modelling via Gaussian process regression: An application to HERA data

Author

Ghosh, A, Mertens, F, Bernardi, G, Santos, MG, Kern, NS, Carilli, CL, Grobler, TL, Koopmans, LVE, Jacobs, DC, Liu, A, Parsons, AR, Morales, MF, Aguirre, JE, Dillon, JS, Hazelton, BJ, Smirnov, OM, Gehlot, BK, Matika, S, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Beardsley, AP, Benefo, RK, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Cheng, C, Chichura, PM, Deboer, DR, Acedo, EDL, Ewall-Wice, A, Fadana, G, Fagnoni, N, Fortino, AF, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gallardo, S, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Hickish, J, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Igarashi, AS, Kariseb, M, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lekalake, T, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Mathison, N, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sell, R, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
instrumentation: interferometers, methods: statistical, dark ages, reionization, first stars, diffuse radiation, large-scale structure of Universe, cosmology: observations, astro-ph.CO, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Abstract

The key challenge in the observation of the redshifted 21-cm signal from cosmic reionization is its separation from the much brighter foreground emission. Such separation relies on the different spectral properties of the two components, although, in real life, the foreground intrinsic spectrum is often corrupted by the instrumental response, inducing systematic effects that can further jeopardize the measurement of the 21-cm signal. In this paper, we use Gaussian Process Regression to model both foreground emission and instrumental systematics in ∼2 h of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. We find that a simple co-variance model with three components matches the data well, giving a residual power spectrum with white noise properties. These consist of an 'intrinsic' and instrumentally corrupted component with a coherence scale of 20 and 2.4 MHz, respectively (dominating the line-of-sight power spectrum over scales kâ ≤ 0.2 h cMpc-1) and a baseline-dependent periodic signal with a period of ∼1 MHz (dominating over kâ ∼0.4-0.8 h cMpc-1), which should be distinguishable from the 21-cm Epoch of Reionization signal whose typical coherence scale is ∼0.8 MHz.

Published
2020

7. Redundant-baseline calibration of the hydrogen epoch of reionization array

Author

Dillon, JS, Lee, M, Ali, ZS, Parsons, AR, Orosz, N, Nunhokee, CD, La Plante, P, Beardsley, AP, Kern, NS, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Balfour, Y, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, de Lera Acedo, E, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, Ma, YZ, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, S, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
instrumentation: interferometers, dark ages, reionization, first stars, astro-ph.IM, astro-ph.CO, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Abstract

In 21-cm cosmology, precision calibration is key to the separation of the neutral hydrogen signal from very bright but spectrally smooth astrophysical foregrounds. The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), an interferometer specialized for 21-cm cosmology and now under construction in South Africa, was designed to be largely calibrated using the self-consistency of repeated measurements of the same interferometric modes. This technique, known as redundant-baseline calibration resolves most of the internal degrees of freedom in the calibration problem. It assumes, however, on antenna elements with identical primary beams placed precisely on a redundant grid. In this work, we review the detailed implementation of the algorithms enabling redundant-baseline calibration and report results with HERA data.We quantify the effects of real-world non-redundancy and how they compare to the idealized scenario in which redundant measurements differ only in their noise realizations. Finally, we study how non-redundancy can produce spurious temporal structure in our calibration solutions-both in data and in simulations-and present strategies for mitigating that structure.

Published
2020

8. Optimizing sparse RFI prediction using deep learning

Author

Kerrigan, J, la Plante, P, Kohn, S, Pober, JC, Aguirre, J, Abdurashidova, Z, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, de Lera Acedo, E, Dillon, JS, Estrada, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Gorthi, D, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kittiwisit, P, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
methods: data analysis, techniques: interferometric, astro-ph.IM, astro-ph.CO, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Abstract

Radio frequency interference (RFI) is an ever-present limiting factor among radio telescopes even in the most remote observing locations. When looking to retain the maximum amount of sensitivity and reduce contamination for Epoch of Reionization studies, the identification and removal of RFI is especially important. In addition to improved RFI identification, we must also take into account computational efficiency of the RFI-Identification algorithm as radio interferometer arrays such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) grow larger in number of receivers. To address this, we present a deep fully convolutional neural network (DFCN) that is comprehensive in its use of interferometric data, where both amplitude and phase information are used jointly for identifying RFI. We train the network using simulated HERA visibilities containing mock RFI, yielding a known ‘ground truth’ data set for evaluating the accuracy of various RFI algorithms. Evaluation of the DFCN model is performed on observations from the 67 dish build-out, HERA-67, and achieves a data throughput of 1.6 × 105 HERA time-ordered 1024 channelled visibilities per hour per GPU. We determine that relative to an amplitude only network including visibility phase adds important adjacent time–frequency context which increases discrimination between RFI and non-RFI. The inclusion of phase when predicting achieves a recall of 0.81, precision of 0.58, and F2 score of 0.75 as applied to our HERA-67 observations.

Published
2019

9. The HERA-19 Commissioning Array: Direction-dependent Effects

Author

Kohn, SA, Aguirre, JE, La Plante, P, Billings, TS, Chichura, PM, Fortino, AF, Igarashi, AS, Benefo, RK, Gallardo, S, Martinot, ZE, Nunhokee, CD, Kern, NS, Bull, P, Liu, A, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fadana, G, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kolopanis, M, Lekalake, T, Loots, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Mathison, N, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Morales, MF, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sell, R, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
cosmology: observations, dark ages, reionization, first stars, instrumentation: interferometers, polarization, techniques: interferometric, astro-ph.IM, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences, Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics, Physical Chemistry, Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics, Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Abstract

Foreground power dominates the measurements of interferometers that seek a statistical detection of highly-redshifted H i emission from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The chromaticity of the instrument creates a boundary in the Fourier transform of frequency (proportional to k ∥) between spectrally smooth emission, characteristic of the strong synchrotron foreground (the "wedge"), and the spectrally structured emission from H i in the EoR (the "EoR window"). Faraday rotation can inject spectral structure into otherwise smooth polarized foreground emission, which through instrument effects or miscalibration could possibly pollute the EoR window. For instruments pursuing a "foreground avoidance" strategy of simply measuring in the EoR window, and not attempting to model and remove foregrounds, as is the plan for the first stage of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), characterizing the intrinsic instrument polarization response is particularly important. Using data from the HERA 19-element commissioning array, we investigate the polarization response of this new instrument in the power-spectrum domain. We perform a simple image-based calibration based on the unpolarized diffuse emission of the Global Sky Model, and show that it achieves qualitative redundancy between the nominally redundant baselines of the array and reasonable amplitude accuracy. We construct power spectra of all fully polarized coherencies in all pseudo-Stokes parameters, and discuss the achieved isolation of foreground power due to the intrinsic spectral smoothness of the foregrounds, the instrument chromaticity, and the calibration. We compare to simulations based on an unpolarized diffuse sky model and detailed electromagnetic simulations of the dish and feed, confirming that in Stokes I, the calibration does not add significant spectral structure beyond that expected from the interferometer array configuration and the modeled primary beam response. Furthermore, this calibration is stable over the 8 days of observations considered. Excess power is seen in the power spectra of the linear polarization Stokes parameters, which is not easily attributable to leakage via the primary beam, and results from some combination of residual calibration errors and actual polarized emission. Stokes V is found to be highly discrepant from the expectation of zero power, strongly pointing to the need for more accurate polarized calibration.

Published
2019

10. The hydrogen epoch of reionization array dish III: measuring chromaticity of prototype element with reflectometry

Author

Patra, N, Parsons, AR, DeBoer, DR, Thyagarajan, N, Ewall-Wice, A, Hsyu, G, Leung, TK, Day, CK, de Lera Acedo, E, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Beardsley, AP, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Dillon, JS, Fadana, G, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Hazelton, BJ, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, MC, Kohn, SA, Lebedeva, A, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, Z, Mathison, N, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Morales, MF, Neben, AR, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sell, R, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
Astronomical instrumentation, Methods and techniques-wideband radio interferometry, Delay spectrum technique-EoR power spectrum, cm cosmology, astro-ph.IM, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Abstract

Spectral structures due to the instrument response is the current limiting factor for the experiments attempting to detect the redshifted 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Recent advances in the delay spectrum methodology for measuring the redshifted 21 cm EoR power spectrum brought new attention to the impact of an antenna’s frequency response on the viability of making this challenging measurement. The delay spectrum methodology provides a somewhat straightforward relationship between the time-domain response of an instrument that can be directly measured and the power spectrum modes accessible to a 21 cm EoR experiment. In this paper, we derive the explicit relationship between antenna reflection coefficient (S11) measurements made by a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and the extent of additional foreground contaminations in delay space. In the light of this mathematical framework, we examine the chromaticity of a prototype antenna element that will constitute the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) between 100 and 200 MHz. These reflectometry measurements exhibit additional structures relative to electromagnetic simulations, but we find that even without any further design improvement, such an antenna element will support measuring spatial k modes with line-of-sight components of k∥ > 0.2h Mpc− 1. We also find that when combined with the powerful inverse covariance weighting method used in optimal quadratic estimation of redshifted 21 cm power spectra the HERA prototype elements can successfully measure the power spectrum at spatial modes as low as k∥ > 0.1h Mpc− 1. This work represents a major step toward understanding the HERA antenna element and highlights a straightforward method for characterizing instrument response for future experiments designed to detect the 21 cm EoR power spectrum.

Published
2018

11. Improved Constraints on the 21 cm EoR Power Spectrum and the X-Ray Heating of the IGM with HERA Phase I Observations

Author

Abdurashidova, THCZ, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Barkana, R, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Breitman, D, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Choudhuri, S, DeBoer, DR, De Lera Acedo, E, Dexter, M, Dillon, JS, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fialkov, A, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, Gale-Sides, K, Garsden, H, Glendenning, B, Gorce, A, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Heimersheim, S, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lewis, D, Liu, A, Loots, A, Ma, YZ, MacMahon, DHE, Malan, L, Malgas, K, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, McBride, L, Mesinger, A, Mirocha, J, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Muñoz, JB, Murray, SG, Nagpal, V, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Qin, Y, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Singh, S, Smith, C, Swarts, H, Tan, J, Thyagarajan, N, Wilensky, MJ, Williams, PKG, Van Wyngaarden, P, Zheng, H, Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Barkana, R [0000-0002-1557-693X], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bradley, RF [0000-0003-1172-8331], Breitman, D [0000-0002-2349-3341], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Choudhuri, S [0000-0002-2338-935X], DeBoer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], de Lera Acedo, E [0000-0001-8530-6989], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Fagnoni, N [0000-0001-5300-3166], Fialkov, A [0000-0002-1369-633X], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Gorce, A [0000-0002-1712-737X], Gorthi, D [0000-0002-0829-167X], Greig, B [0000-0002-4085-2094], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Heimersheim, S [0000-0001-9631-4212], Hewitt, JN [0000-0002-4117-570X], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Kerrigan, J [0000-0002-1876-272X], Kittiwisit, P [0000-0003-0953-313X], Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], Lanman, A [0000-0003-2116-3573], La Plante, P [0000-0002-4693-0102], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Ma, YZ [0000-0001-8108-0986], Mesinger, A [0000-0003-3374-1772], Mirocha, J [0000-0002-8802-5581], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Muñoz, JB [0000-0002-8984-0465], Murray, SG [0000-0003-3059-3823], Nagpal, V [0000-0001-5909-4433], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Nikolic, B [0000-0001-7168-2705], Nunhokee, CD [0000-0002-5445-6586], Parsons, AR [0000-0002-5400-8097], Pascua, R [0000-0003-0073-5528], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Qin, Y [0000-0002-4314-1810], Razavi-Ghods, N [0000-0003-2930-5396], Rosie, K [0000-0003-3611-8804], Santos, MG [0000-0003-3892-3073], Sims, P [0000-0002-2871-0413], Singh, S [0000-0001-7755-902X], Tan, J [0000-0001-6161-7037], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], Wilensky, MJ [0000-0001-7716-9312], Williams, PKG [0000-0003-3734-3587], Zheng, H [0000-0001-8267-3425], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Space and Planetary Science, 5101 Astronomical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 51 Physical Sciences
Abstract

We report the most sensitive upper limits to date on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum using 94 nights of observing with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Using similar analysis techniques as in previously reported limits, we find at 95% confidence that Δ2(k = 0.34 h Mpc−1) ≤ 457 mK2 at z = 7.9 and that Δ2(k = 0.36 h Mpc−1) ≤ 3496 mK2 at z = 10.4, an improvement by a factor of 2.1 and 2.6, respectively. These limits are mostly consistent with thermal noise over a wide range of k after our data quality cuts, despite performing a relatively conservative analysis designed to minimize signal loss. Our results are validated with both statistical tests on the data and end-to-end pipeline simulations. We also report updated constraints on the astrophysics of reionization and the cosmic dawn. Using multiple independent modeling and inference techniques previously employed by HERA Collaboration, we find that the intergalactic medium must have been heated above the adiabatic cooling limit at least as early as z = 10.4, ruling out a broad set of so-called “cold reionization” scenarios. If this heating is due to high-mass X-ray binaries during the cosmic dawn, as is generally believed, our result’s 99% credible interval excludes the local relationship between soft X-ray luminosity and star formation and thus requires heating driven by evolved low-metallicity stars.

Published
2023

12. Characterization of inpaint residuals in interferometric measurements of the epoch of reionization

Author

Pagano, M, Liu, J, Liu, A, Kern, NS, Ewall-Wice, A, Bull, P, Pascua, R, Ravanbakhsh, S, Abdurashidova, Z, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Acedo, EDL, Dexter, M, Dillon, JS, Eksteen, N, Ely, J, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Loots, A, MacMahon, DHE, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Malgas, K, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Swarts, H, Thyagarajan, N, van Wyngaarden, P, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Pagano, M, Liu, J, Liu, A, Kern, NS, Ewall-Wice, A, Bull, P, Pascua, R, Ravanbakhsh, S, Abdurashidova, Z, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Acedo, EDL, Dexter, M, Dillon, JS, Eksteen, N, Ely, J, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Loots, A, MacMahon, DHE, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Malgas, K, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Swarts, H, Thyagarajan, N, van Wyngaarden, P, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

To mitigate the effects of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on the data analysis pipelines of 21 cm interferometric instruments, numerous inpaint techniques have been developed. In this paper, we examine the qualitative and quantitative errors introduced into the visibilities and power spectrum due to inpainting. We perform our analysis on simulated data as well as real data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) Phase 1 upper limits. We also introduce a convolutional neural network that is capable of inpainting RFI corrupted data. We train our network on simulated data and show that our network is capable of inpainting real data without requiring to be retrained. We find that techniques that incorporate high wavenumbers in delay space in their modelling are best suited for inpainting over narrowband RFI. We show that with our fiducial parameters discrete prolate spheroidal sequences (dpss) and clean provide the best performance for intermittent RFI while Gaussian progress regression (gpr) and least squares spectral analysis (lssa) provide the best performance for larger RFI gaps. However, we caution that these qualitative conclusions are sensitive to the chosen hyperparameters of each inpainting technique. We show that all inpainting techniques reliably reproduce foreground dominated modes in the power spectrum. Since the inpainting techniques should not be capable of reproducing noise realizations, we find that the largest errors occur in the noise dominated delay modes. We show that as the noise level of the data comes down, clean and dpss are most capable of reproducing the fine frequency structure in the visibilities.

Published
2023

13. Bayesian jackknife tests with a small number of subsets: application to HERA 21 cm power spectrum upper limits

Author

Wilensky, MJ, Kennedy, F, Bull, P, Dillon, JS, Abdurashidova, Z, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, de Lera Acedo, E, Dexter, M, Eksteen, N, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, DHE, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Malgas, K, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Swarts, H, Thyagarajan, N, van Wyngaarden, P, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Wilensky, MJ, Kennedy, F, Bull, P, Dillon, JS, Abdurashidova, Z, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, de Lera Acedo, E, Dexter, M, Eksteen, N, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, DHE, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Malgas, K, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Swarts, H, Thyagarajan, N, van Wyngaarden, P, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

We present a Bayesian jackknife test for assessing the probability that a data set contains biased subsets, and, if so, which of the subsets are likely to be biased. The test can be used to assess the presence and likely source of statistical tension between different measurements of the same quantities in an automated manner. Under certain broadly applicable assumptions, the test is analytically tractable. We also provide an open-source code, chiborg, that performs both analytic and numerical computations of the test on general Gaussian-distributed data. After exploring the information theoretical aspects of the test and its performance with an array of simulations, we apply it to data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to assess whether different sub-seasons of observing can justifiably be combined to produce a deeper 21 cm power spectrum upper limit. We find that, with a handful of exceptions, the HERA data in question are statistically consistent and this decision is justified. We conclude by pointing out the wide applicability of this test, including to CMB experiments and the H0 tension.

Published
2023

14. The Impact of Beam Variations on Power Spectrum Estimation for 21 cm Cosmology. I. Simulations of Foreground Contamination for HERA

Author

Kim, H, Nhan, BD, Hewitt, JN, Kern, NS, Dillon, JS, De Lera Acedo, E, Dynes, SBC, Mahesh, N, Fagnoni, N, DeBoer, DR, Kim, H [0000-0001-5421-8927], Nhan, BD [0000-0001-5122-9997], Hewitt, JN [0000-0002-4117-570X], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], de Lera Acedo, E [0000-0001-8530-6989], Dynes, SBC [0000-0001-7010-0937], Mahesh, N [0000-0003-2560-8023], Fagnoni, N [0000-0001-5300-3166], DeBoer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), 5101 Astronomical Sciences, Space and Planetary Science, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5109 Space Sciences, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 51 Physical Sciences, 5107 Particle and High Energy Physics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Detecting cosmological signals from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) requires high-precision calibration to isolate the cosmological signals from foreground emission. In radio interferometery, perturbed primary beams of antenna elements can disrupt the precise calibration, which results in contaminating the foreground-free region, or the EoR window, in the cylindrically averaged power spectrum. For Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), we simulate and characterize the perturbed primary beams induced by feed motions such as axial, lateral, and tilting motions, above the 14-meter dish. To understand the effect of the perturbed beams, visibility measurements are modeled with two different foreground components, point sources and diffuse sources, and we find different feed motions present a different reaction to each type of sky source. HERA's redundant-baseline calibration in the presence of non-redundant antenna beams due to feed motions introduces chromatic errors in gain solutions, which produces foreground power leakage into the EoR window. The observed leakage from vertical feed motions comes predominately from point sources around zenith. Furthermore, the observed leakage from horizontal and tilting feed motion comes predominately from the diffuse components near the horizon. Mitigation of chromatic gain errors will be necessary for robust detection of the EoR signals with minimal foreground bias, and this will be discussed in the subsequent paper., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Published
2022
Full Text
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15. Direct Optimal Mapping for 21cm Cosmology: A Demonstration with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Xu, Z, Hewitt, JN, Chen, KF, Kim, H, Dillon, JS, Kern, NS, Morales, MF, Hazelton, BJ, Byrne, R, Fagnoni, N, Acedo, EDL, Abdurashidova, Z, Adams, T, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Baartman, R, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Eksteen, N, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Plante, PL, Liu, A, Loots, A, Ma, YZ, Edward MacMahon, DH, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Malgas, K, Marero, B, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nuwegeld, H, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Swarts, H, Thyagarajan, N, Wyngaarden, PVV, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Xu, Z [0000-0001-5112-2567], Hewitt, JN [0000-0002-4117-570X], Chen, KF [0000-0002-3839-0230], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Byrne, R [0000-0003-4980-2736], Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bradley, RF [0000-0003-1172-8331], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], DeBoer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Gorthi, D [0000-0002-0829-167X], Greig, B [0000-0002-4085-2094], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kerrigan, J [0000-0002-1876-272X], Kittiwisit, P [0000-0003-0953-313X], Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], Lanman, A [0000-0003-2116-3573], Plante, PL [0000-0002-4693-0102], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Ma, YZ [0000-0001-8108-0986], Mesinger, A [0000-0003-3374-1772], Murray, SG [0000-0003-3059-3823], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Parsons, AR [0000-0002-5400-8097], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Pober, JC [0000-0002-3492-0433], Sims, P [0000-0002-2871-0413], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], Williams, PKG [0000-0003-3734-3587], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, Xu, Zhilei, Hewitt, Jacqueline N., Chen, Kai-Feng, Kim, Honggeun, Dillon, Joshua S., Kern, Nicholas S., Morales, Miguel F., Hazelton, Bryna J., Byrne, Ruby, Fagnoni, Nicola, de Lera Acedo, Eloy, Abdurashidova, Zara, Adams, Tyrone, Aguirre, James E., Alexander, Paul, Ali, Zaki S., Baartman, Rushelle, Balfour, Yanga, Beardsley, Adam P., Bernardi, Gianni, Billings, Tashalee S., Bowman, Judd D., Bradley, Richard F., Bull, Philip, Burba, Jacob, Carey, Steven, Carilli, Chris L., Cheng, Carina, Deboer, David R., Dexter, Matt, Eksteen, Nico, Ely, John, Ewall-Wice, Aaron, Fritz, Randall, Furlanetto, Steven R., Gale-Sides, Kingsley, Glendenning, Brian, Gorthi, Deepthi, Greig, Bradley, Grobbelaar, Jasper, Halday, Ziyaad, Hickish, Jack, Jacobs, Daniel C., Julius, Austin, Kariseb, Maccalvin, Kerrigan, Joshua, Kittiwisit, Piyanat, Kohn, Saul A., Kolopanis, Matthew, Lanman, Adam, La Plante, Paul, Liu, Adrian, Loots, Anita, Ma, Yin-Zhe, Harold Edward MacMahon, David, Malan, Lourence, Malgas, Cresshim, Malgas, Keith, Marero, Bradley, Martinot, Zachary E., Mesinger, ANDREI ALBERT, Molewa, Mathakane, Mosiane, Tshegofalang, Murray, Steven G., Neben, Abraham R., Nikolic, Bojan, Nuwegeld, Han, Parsons, Aaron R., Patra, Nipanjana, Pieterse, Samantha, Pober, Jonathan C., Razavi-Ghods, Nima, Robnett, Jame, Rosie, Kathryn, Sims, Peter, Smith, Craig, Swarts, Hilton, Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan, Van Van Wyngaarden, Pieter, Williams, Peter K. G., and Zheng, Haoxuan

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), model, maps, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Galactic radio-emission, 5109 Space Sciences, power spectrum, calibration, 10 mhz, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 5101 Astronomical Sciences, Space and Planetary Science, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), upper limit, 51 Physical Sciences, 5107 Particle and High Energy Physics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Motivated by the desire for wide-field images with well-defined statistical properties for 21cm cosmology, we implement an optimal mapping pipeline that computes a maximum likelihood estimator for the sky using the interferometric measurement equation. We demonstrate this direct optimal mapping with data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization (HERA) Phase I observations. After validating the pipeline with simulated data, we develop a maximum likelihood figure-of-merit for comparing four sky models at 166MHz with a bandwidth of 100kHz. The HERA data agree with the GLEAM catalogs to, 16 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, published on ApJ

Published
2022

16. Automated Detection of Antenna Malfunctions in Large-N Interferometers: A case study With the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Storer, D, Dillon, JS, Jacobs, DC, Morales, MF, Hazelton, BJ, Ewall-Wice, A, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Acedo, EL, Dexter, M, Dynes, S, Ely, J, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Huang, T, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Riley, D, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Singh, S, Smith, C, Tan, J, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Storer, D, Dillon, JS, Jacobs, DC, Morales, MF, Hazelton, BJ, Ewall-Wice, A, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Acedo, EL, Dexter, M, Dynes, S, Ely, J, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Huang, T, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Martinot, ZE, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Riley, D, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Singh, S, Smith, C, Tan, J, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

We present a framework for identifying and flagging malfunctioning antennas in large radio interferometers. We outline two distinct categories of metrics designed to detect outliers along known failure modes of large arrays: cross‐correlation metrics, based on all antenna pairs, and auto‐correlation metrics, based solely on individual antennas. We define and motivate the statistical framework for all metrics used, and present tailored visualizations that aid us in clearly identifying new and existing systematics. We implement these techniques using data from 105 antennas in the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) as a case study. Finally, we provide a detailed algorithm for implementing these metrics as flagging tools on real data sets.

Published
2022

18. Understanding the HERA Phase i receiver system with simulations and its impact on the detectability of the EoR delay power spectrum

Author

Fagnoni, N, De Lera Acedo, E, Deboer, DR, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Dexter, M, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kim, H, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Plante, PL, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mena Parra, J, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, De Lera Acedo, Eloy [0000-0001-8530-6989], Alexander, Paul [0000-0002-0292-9513], Nikolic, Bojan [0000-0001-7168-2705], Razavi-Ghods, Nima [0000-0003-2930-5396], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
interferometers [instrumentation], first stars, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, numerical [methods], telescopes, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, interferometric [techniques], methods: numerical, dark ages, reionization, techniques: interferometric, reionization, dark ages, instrumentation: interferometers, Astronomical and Space Sciences, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

The detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) delay power spectrum using a "foreground avoidance method" highly depends on the instrument chromaticity. The systematic effects induced by the radio-telescope spread the foreground signal in the delay domain, which contaminates the EoR window theoretically observable. Applied to the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), this paper combines detailed electromagnetic and electrical simulations in order to model the chromatic effects of the instrument, and quantify its frequency and time responses. In particular, the effects of the analogue receiver, transmission cables, and mutual coupling are included. These simulations are able to accurately predict the intensity of the reflections occurring in the 150-m cable which links the antenna to the back-end. They also show that electromagnetic waves can propagate from one dish to another one through large sections of the array due to mutual coupling. The simulated system time response is attenuated by a factor $10^{4}$ after a characteristic delay which depends on the size of the array and on the antenna position. Ultimately, the system response is attenuated by a factor $10^{5}$ after 1400 ns because of the reflections in the cable, which corresponds to characterizable ${k_\parallel}$-modes above 0.7 $h\;\rm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at 150 MHz. Thus, this new study shows that the detection of the EoR signal with HERA Phase I will be more challenging than expected. On the other hand, it improves our understanding of the telescope, which is essential to mitigate the instrument chromaticity.

Published
2020
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19. Effects of model incompleteness on the drift-scan calibration of radio telescopes

Author

Gehlot, BK, Jacobs, DC, Bowman, JD, Mahesh, N, Murray, SG, Kolopanis, M, Beardsley, AP, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, Ma, Y-Z, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Monsalve, RA, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Gehlot, BK, Jacobs, DC, Bowman, JD, Mahesh, N, Murray, SG, Kolopanis, M, Beardsley, AP, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Julius, A, Kern, NS, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, Ma, Y-Z, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Monsalve, RA, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

Precision calibration poses challenges to experiments probing the redshifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (z ∼ 30–6). In both interferometric and global signal experiments, systematic calibration is the leading source of error. Though many aspects of calibration have been studied, the overlap between the two types of instruments has received less attention. We investigate the sky based calibration of total power measurements with a HERA dish and an EDGES-style antenna to understand the role of autocorrelations in the calibration of an interferometer and the role of sky in calibrating a total power instrument. Using simulations we study various scenarios such as time variable gain, incomplete sky calibration model, and primary beam model. We find that temporal gain drifts, sky model incompleteness, and beam inaccuracies cause biases in the receiver gain amplitude and the receiver temperature estimates. In some cases, these biases mix spectral structure between beam and sky resulting in spectrally variable gain errors. Applying the calibration method to the HERA and EDGES data, we find good agreement with calibration via the more standard methods. Although instrumental gains are consistent with beam and sky errors similar in scale to those simulated, the receiver temperatures show significant deviations from expected values. While we show that it is possible to partially mitigate biases due to model inaccuracies by incorporating a time-dependent gain model in calibration, the resulting errors on calibration products are larger and more correlated. Completely addressing these biases will require more accurate sky and primary beam models.

Published
2021

20. A Real Time Processing system for big data in astronomy: Applications to HERA

Author

La Plante, P, Williams, PKG, Kolopanis, M, Dillon, JS, Beardsley, AP, Kern, NS, Wilensky, M, Ali, ZS, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Balfour, Y, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Lanman, A, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, S, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Zheng, H, La Plante, P, Williams, PKG, Kolopanis, M, Dillon, JS, Beardsley, AP, Kern, NS, Wilensky, M, Ali, ZS, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Balfour, Y, Bernardi, G, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Lanman, A, Lekalake, T, Lewis, D, Liu, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, S, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Pascua, R, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Santos, MG, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, and Zheng, H

Published
2021

21. H <scp>I</scp>21-cm Cosmology and the Bispectrum: Closure Diagnostics in Massively Redundant Interferometric Arrays

Author

Carilli, CL, Nikolic, B, Thyagarajan, N, Gale-Sides, K, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fadana, G, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Ghosh, A, Glendenning, B, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, Z, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Neben, AR, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Plante, PL, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sell, R, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
Physics, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Phase (waves), Closure (topology), FOS: Physical sciences, Condensed Matter Physics, 01 natural sciences, Computational physics, Interferometry, 0103 physical sciences, Closure phase, Redundancy (engineering), General Earth and Planetary Sciences, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Allan variance, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Bispectrum, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

New massively redundant low frequency arrays allow for a novel investigation of closure relations in interferometry. We employ commissioning data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array to investigate closure quantities in this densely packed grid array of 14m antennas operating at 100 MHz to 200 MHz. We investigate techniques that utilize closure phase spectra for redundant triads to estimate departures from redundancy for redundant baseline visibilities. We find a median absolute deviation from redundancy in closure phase across the observed frequency range of about 4.5deg. This value translates into a non-redundancy per visibility phase of about 2.6deg, using prototype electronics. The median absolute deviations from redundancy decrease with longer baselines. We show that closure phase spectra can be used to identify ill-behaved antennas in the array, independent of calibration. We investigate the temporal behavior of closure spectra. The Allan variance increases after a one minute stride time, due to passage of the sky through the primary beam of the transit telescope. However, the closure spectra repeat to well within the noise per measurement at corresponding local sidereal times (LST) from day to day. In future papers in this series we will develop the technique of using closure phase spectra in the search for the HI 21cm signal from cosmic reionization., 32 pages. 11 figures. Accepted to Radio Science

Published
2018
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22. Imaging and Modeling Data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Carilli, CL, Thyagarajan, N, Kent, J, Nikolic, B, Gale-Sides, K, Kern, NS, Bernardi, G, Mesinger, A, Matika, S, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kim, H, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Plante, PL, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Parra, JM, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Syce, A, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Carilli, CL, Thyagarajan, N, Kent, J, Nikolic, B, Gale-Sides, K, Kern, NS, Bernardi, G, Mesinger, A, Matika, S, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Josaitis, A, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kim, H, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, Plante, PL, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Neben, AR, Parra, JM, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Syce, A, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

We analyze data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). This is the third in a series of papers on the closure phase delay spectrum technique designed to detect the H i 21 cm emission from cosmic reionization. We present the details of the data and models employed in the power spectral analysis and discuss limitations to the process. We compare images and visibility spectra made with HERA data to parallel quantities generated from sky models based on the Galactic and Extra-Galactic All-Sky MWA (GLEAM) survey, incorporating the HERA telescope model. We find reasonable agreement between images made from HERA data with those generated from the models, down to the confusion level. For the visibility spectra, there is broad agreement between model and data across the full band of ∼80 MHz. However, models with only GLEAM sources do not reproduce a roughly sinusoidal spectral structure at the tens of percent level seen in the observed visibility spectra on scales of ∼10 MHz on 29 m baselines. We find that this structure is likely due to diffuse Galactic emission, predominantly the Galactic plane, filling the far sidelobes of the antenna primary beam. We show that our current knowledge of the frequency dependence of the diffuse sky radio emission, and the primary beam at large zenith angles, is inadequate to provide an accurate reproduction of the diffuse structure in the models. We discuss some implications arising due to this missing structure in the models, in terms of calibration, and in the search for the H i 21 cm signal, as well as possible mitigation techniques.

Published
2020

23. Mitigating Internal Instrument Coupling for 21 cm Cosmology. II. A Method Demonstration with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Kern, NS, Parsons, AR, Dillon, JS, Lanman, AE, Liu, A, Bull, P, Ewall-Wice, A, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, De Lera Acedo, E, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Kern, NS, Parsons, AR, Dillon, JS, Lanman, AE, Liu, A, Bull, P, Ewall-Wice, A, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Burba, J, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, De Lera Acedo, E, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

We present a study of internal reflection and cross-coupling systematics in Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). In a companion paper, we outlined the mathematical formalism for such systematics and presented algorithms for modeling and removing them from the data. In this work, we apply these techniques to data from HERA's first observing season as a method demonstration. The data show evidence for systematics that, without removal, would hinder a detection of the 21 cm power spectrum for the targeted Epoch of Reionization (EoR) line-of-sight modes in the range 0.2 h Mpc < $" SRC="apjab5e8aieqn1.gif"/ < 0.5 h Mpc . In particular, we find evidence for nonnegligible amounts of spectral structure in the raw autocorrelations that overlaps with the EoR window and is suggestive of complex instrumental effects. Through systematic modeling on a single night of data, we find we can recover these modes in the power spectrum down to the integrated noise floor, achieving a dynamic range in the EoR window of 10 in power (mK units) with respect to the bright galactic foreground signal. Future work with deeper integrations will help determine whether these systematics can continue to be mitigated down to EoR levels. For future observing seasons, HERA will have upgraded analog and digital hardware to better control these systematics in the field. -1 -1 -1 -1 6 2

Published
2020

24. Absolute Calibration Strategies for the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array and Their Impact on the 21 cm Power Spectrum

Author

Kern, NS, Dillon, JS, Parsons, AR, Carilli, CL, Bernardi, G, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, De Lera Acedo, E, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, Zheng, H, Kern, NS, Dillon, JS, Parsons, AR, Carilli, CL, Bernardi, G, Abdurashidova, Z, Aguirre, JE, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Balfour, Y, Beardsley, AP, Billings, TS, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Bull, P, Burba, J, Carey, S, Cheng, C, Deboer, DR, Dexter, M, De Lera Acedo, E, Ely, J, Ewall-Wice, A, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Gale-Sides, K, Glendenning, B, Gorthi, D, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Halday, Z, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kerrigan, J, Kittiwisit, P, Kohn, SA, Kolopanis, M, Lanman, A, La Plante, P, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Macmahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Martinot, ZE, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Molewa, M, Morales, MF, Mosiane, T, Murray, SG, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Nunhokee, CD, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sims, P, Smith, C, Syce, A, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Abstract

We discuss absolute calibration strategies for Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), which aims to measure the cosmological 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization. HERA is a drift-scan array with a 10° wide field of view, meaning bright, well-characterized point-source transits are scarce. This, combined with HERA's redundant sampling of the uv plane and the modest angular resolution of the Phase I instrument, make traditional sky-based and self-calibration techniques difficult to implement with high dynamic range. Nonetheless, in this work, we demonstrate calibration for HERA using point-source catalogs and electromagnetic simulations of its primary beam. We show that unmodeled diffuse flux and instrumental contaminants can corrupt the gain solutions and present a gain-smoothing approach for mitigating their impact on the 21 cm power spectrum. We also demonstrate a hybrid sky and redundant calibration scheme and compare it to pure sky-based calibration, showing only a marginal improvement to the gain solutions at intermediate delay scales. Our work suggests that the HERA Phase I system can be well calibrated for a foreground avoidance power spectrum estimator by applying direction-independent gains with a small set of degrees of freedom across the frequency and time axes.

Published
2020

25. Polarized Foreground Power Spectra from the HERA-19 Commissioning Array

Author

Kohn, S, Chichura, PM, Igarashi, AS, Fortino, AF, Aguirre, JE, Benefo, RK, Billings, TS, Gallardo, S, Plante, PL, Martinot, ZE, Nunhokee, CD, Alexander, P, Ali, ZS, Beardsley, AP, Bernardi, G, Bowman, JD, Bradley, RF, Carilli, CL, Cheng, C, DeBoer, DR, Acedo, EDL, Dillon, JS, Ewall-Wice, A, Fadana, G, Fagnoni, N, Fritz, R, Furlanetto, SR, Glendenning, B, Greig, B, Grobbelaar, J, Hazelton, BJ, Hewitt, JN, Hickish, J, Jacobs, DC, Julius, A, Kariseb, M, Kern, NS, Kolopanis, M, Lekalake, T, Liu, A, Loots, A, MacMahon, D, Malan, L, Malgas, C, Maree, M, Mathison, N, Matsetela, E, Mesinger, A, Morales, MF, Neben, AR, Nikolic, B, Parsons, AR, Patra, N, Pieterse, S, Pober, JC, Razavi-Ghods, N, Ringuette, J, Robnett, J, Rosie, K, Sell, R, Smith, C, Syce, A, Tegmark, M, Thyagarajan, N, Williams, PKG, and Zheng, H

Subjects
Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

Foreground power dominates the measurements of interferometers that seek a statistical detection of highly-redshifted HI emission from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The inherent spectral smoothness of synchrotron radiation, the dominant foreground emission mechanism, and the chromaticity of the instrument allows these experiments to delineate a boundary between spectrally smooth and structured emission in Fourier space (the "wedge" or "pitchfork", and the "EoR Window", respectively). Faraday rotation can inject spectral structure into otherwise smooth polarized foreground emission, which through instrument effects or miscalibration could possibly pollute the EoR Window. Using data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) 19-element commissioning array, we investigate the polarization response of this new instrument in the power spectrum domain. We confirm the expected structure of foreground emission in Fourier space predicted by Thyagarajan et al. (2015a, 2016) for a HERA-type dish, and detect polarized power within the pitchfork. Using simulations of the polarized response of HERA feeds, we find that almost all of the power in Stokes Q, U and V can be attributed to instrumental leakage effects. Power consistent with noise in the EoR window suggests a negligible amount of spectrally-structured polarized power, to the noise-levels attained. This lends confidence to deep integrations with HERA in the future, but with a lower noise floor these future studies will also have to investigate their polarized response.

Published
2018

26. Spectral performance of SKA log-periodic antennas I: Mitigating spectral artefacts in SKA1-LOW 21 cm cosmology experiments

Author

de Lera Acedo, E., Trott, Cathryn, Wayth, Randall, Fagnoni, N., Bernardi, G., Wakley, B., Koopmans, L., Faulkner, A., bij de Vaate, J., de Lera Acedo, E., Trott, Cathryn, Wayth, Randall, Fagnoni, N., Bernardi, G., Wakley, B., Koopmans, L., Faulkner, A., and bij de Vaate, J.

Abstract

This paper is the first in a series of papers describing the impact of antenna instrumental artefacts on the 21 cm cosmology experiments to be carried out by the low frequency instrument (SKA1-LOW) of the Square Kilometre Array telescope (SKA), i.e. the Cosmic Dawn (CD) and the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The smoothness of the passband response of the current log-periodic antenna being developed for the SKA1-LOW is analysed using numerical electromagnetic simulations. The amplitude variations over the frequency range are characterized using low-order polynomials defined locally, in order to study the impact of the passband smoothness in the instrument calibration and CD/EoR Science. A solution is offered to correct a fast ripple found at 60 MHz during a test campaign at the SKA site at the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory, Western Australia in 2015 September with a minor impact on the telescope's performance and design. A comparison with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array antenna is also shown demonstrating the potential use of the SKA1-LOW antenna for the delay-spectrum technique to detect the EoR.

Published
2017

27. Spectral performance of Square Kilometre Array Antennas - II. Calibration performance

Author

Trott, Cathryn, Acedo, E., Wayth, Randall, Fagnoni, N., Sutinjo, Adrian, Wakley, B., Punzalan, Chris Ivan, Trott, Cathryn, Acedo, E., Wayth, Randall, Fagnoni, N., Sutinjo, Adrian, Wakley, B., and Punzalan, Chris Ivan

Abstract

We test the bandpass smoothness performance of two prototype Square Kilometre Array (SKA) SKA1-Low log-periodic dipole antennas, SKALA2 and SKALA3 ('SKA Log-periodic Antenna'), and the current dipole from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) precursor telescope. Throughout this paper, we refer to the output complex-valued voltage response of an antenna when connected to a low-noise amplifier, as the dipole bandpass. In Paper I, the bandpass spectral response of the log-periodic antenna being developed for the SKA1-Low was estimated using numerical electromagnetic simulations and analysed using low-order polynomial fittings, and it was compared with the HERA antenna against the delay spectrum metric. In this work, realistic simulations of the SKA1-Low instrument, including frequencydependent primary beam shapes and array configuration, are used with a weighted leastsquares polynomial estimator to assess the ability of a given prototype antenna to perform the SKA Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) statistical experiments. This work complements the ideal estimator tolerances computed for the proposed EoR science experiments in Trott & Wayth, with the realized performance of an optimal and standard estimation (calibration) procedure. With a sufficient sky calibration model at higher frequencies, all antennas have bandpasses that are sufficiently smooth to meet the tolerances described in Trott & Wayth to perform the EoR statistical experiments, and these are primarily limited by an adequate sky calibration model and the thermal noise level in the calibration data. At frequencies of the Cosmic Dawn, which is of principal interest to SKA as one of the first next-generation telescopes capable of accessing higher redshifts, the MWA dipole and SKALA3 antenna have adequate performance, while the SKALA2 design will impede the ability to explore this era.

Published
2017

28. Effects of model incompleteness on the drift-scan calibration of radio telescopes

Author

Phil Bull, David DeBoer, Adam P. Beardsley, Nipanjana Patra, Ziyaad Halday, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Nicholas S. Kern, Aaron R. Parsons, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Robert Pascua, Max Tegmark, Judd D. Bowman, Adam Lanman, Samantha Pieterse, James Robnett, Peter Sims, Gianni Bernardi, Peter K. G. Williams, Miguel F. Morales, Chris Carilli, Saul A. Kohn, Zara Abdurashidova, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Zaki S. Ali, Steven R. Furlanetto, Abraham R. Neben, Eunice Matsetela, Randall Fritz, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Bryna J. Hazelton, Deepthi Gorthi, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Jon Ringuette, Brian Glendenning, Matt Dexter, Joshua S. Dillon, Carina Cheng, Paul La Plante, Austin Julius, S. H. Carey, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Haoxuan Zheng, David B. Lewis, Mario G. Santos, Daniel C. Jacobs, Joshua Kerrigan, Steven G. Murray, Cresshim Malgas, Jack Hickish, Adrian Liu, James E. Aguirre, Nicolas Fagnoni, Jacob Burba, Yanga Balfour, Lourence Malan, Craig Smith, Raul A. Monsalve, Bradley Greig, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Telalo Lekalake, Matthys Maree, B. K. Gehlot, David MacMahon, Yin-Zhe Ma, Mathakane Molewa, Paul Alexander, Kathryn Rosie, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Nivedita Mahesh, John Ely, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Angelo Syce, Gehlot, B. K., Jacobs, D. C., Bowman, J. D., Mahesh, N., Murray, S. G., Kolopanis, M., Beardsley, A. P., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Dillon, J. S., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Julius, A., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Ma, Y. -Z., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Monsalve, R. A., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Parsons, A. R., Pascua, R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Tegmark, M., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., ITA, and USA

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, media_common.quotation_subject, statistical [methods], FOS: Physical sciences, 01 natural sciences, Radio telescope, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Calibration, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, Remote sensing, media_common, Physics, COSMIC cancer database, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, interferometric [techniques], interferometer [instrumentation], Interferometry, Amplitude, 13. Climate action, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, data analysi [methods], dark ages, reionization, first star, Antenna (radio), Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, miscellaneou [instrumentation], Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Precision calibration poses challenges to experiments probing the redshifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (z~30-6). In both interferometric and global signal experiments, systematic calibration is the leading source of error. Though many aspects of calibration have been studied, the overlap between the two types of instruments has received less attention. We investigate the sky based calibration of total power measurements with a HERA dish and an EDGES style antenna to understand the role of auto-correlations in the calibration of an interferometer and the role of sky in calibrating a total power instrument. Using simulations we study various scenarios such as time variable gain, incomplete sky calibration model, and primary beam model. We find that temporal gain drifts, sky model incompleteness, and beam inaccuracies cause biases in the receiver gain amplitude and the receiver temperature estimates. In some cases, these biases mix spectral structure between beam and sky resulting in spectrally variable gain errors. Applying the calibration method to the HERA and EDGES data, we find good agreement with calibration via the more standard methods. Although instrumental gains are consistent with beam and sky errors similar in scale to those simulated, the receiver temperatures show significant deviations from expected values. While we show that it is possible to partially mitigate biases due to model inaccuracies by incorporating a time-dependent gain model in calibration, the resulting errors on calibration products are larger and more correlated. Completely addressing these biases will require more accurate sky and primary beam models., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in MNRAS main journal

Published
2021
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29. HERA Phase I Limits on the Cosmic 21 cm Signal: Constraints on Astrophysics and Cosmology during the Epoch of Reionization

Author

The HERA Collaboration, Abdurashidova, Zara, Aguirre, James E., Alexander, Paul, Ali, Zaki, Balfour, Yanga, Barkana, Rennan, Beardsley, Adam, Bernardi, Gianni, Billings, Tashalee, Bowman, Judd, Bradley, Richard, Bull, Phillip, Burba, Jacob, Carey, Steven, Carilli, Christopher, Cheng, Carina, DeBoer, David, Dexter, Matthew, Acedo, Eloy de Lera, Dillon, Joshua, Ely, John, Ewall-Wice, Aaron, Fagnoni, Nicolas, Fialkov, Anastasia, Fritz, Randall, Furlanetto, Steven, Gale-Sides, Kingsley, Glendenning, Brian, Gorthi, Deepthi, Greig, Bradley, Grobbelaar, Jasper, Halday, Ziyaad, Hazelton, Bryna, Heimersheim, Stefan, Hewitt, Jacqueline, Hickish, Jack, Jacobs, Daniel, Julius, Austin, Kern, Nicholas, Kerrigan, Joshua, Kittiwisit, Piyanat, Kohn, Saul, Kolopanis, Matthew, Lanman, Adam, La Plante, Paul, Lekalake, Telalo, Lewis, David, Liu, Adrian, Ma, Yin-Zhe, MacMahon, David, Malan, Lourence, Malgas, Cresshim, Maree, Matthys, Martinot, Zachary, Matsetela, Eunice, Mesinger, Andrei, Mirocha, Jordan, Molewa, Mathakane, Morales, Miguel, Mosiane, Tshegofalang, Munoz, Julian, Murray, Steven, Neben, Abraham, Nikolic, Bojan, Nunhokee, Chuneeta Devi, Parsons, Aaron, Patra, Nipanjana, Pieterse, Samantha, Pober, Jonathan, Qin, Yuxiang, Razavi-Ghods, N., Reis, Itamar, Ringuette, Jon, Robnett, James, Rosie, Kathryn, Santos, Mario, Sikder, Sudipta, Sims, Peter, Smith, Craig, Syce, Angelo, Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan, Williams, Peter, Zheng, Haoxuan, Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Barkana, R., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Dillon, J. S., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fialkov, A., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Heimersheim, S., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Ma, Y. -Z., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Mirocha, J., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Munoz, J. B., Murray, S. G., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Nunhokee, C. D., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Qin, Y., Razavi-Ghods, N., Reis, I., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sikder, S., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., USA, GBR, ZAF, Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Barkana, R [0000-0002-1557-693X], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bradley, RF [0000-0003-1172-8331], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Deboer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Fialkov, A [0000-0002-1369-633X], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Gorthi, D [0000-0002-0829-167X], Greig, B [0000-0002-4085-2094], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Heimersheim, S [0000-0001-9631-4212], Hewitt, JN [0000-0002-4117-570X], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Kerrigan, J [0000-0002-1876-272X], Kittiwisit, P [0000-0003-0953-313X], Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], La Plante, P [0000-0002-4693-0102], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Ma, YZ [0000-0001-8108-0986], Mesinger, A [0000-0003-3374-1772], Mirocha, J [0000-0002-8802-5581], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Munoz, JB [0000-0002-8984-0465], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Nunhokee, CD [0000-0002-5445-6586], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Pober, JC [0000-0002-3492-0433], Qin, Y [0000-0002-4314-1810], Reis, I [0000-0002-6203-7496], Santos, MG [0000-0003-3892-3073], Sims, P [0000-0002-2871-0413], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Theory, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), 010308 nuclear & particles physics, astro-ph.GA, hep-th, Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th), Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, Space and Planetary Science, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), 0103 physical sciences, astro-ph.CO, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Recently, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) collaboration has produced the experiment's first upper limits on the power spectrum of 21-cm fluctuations at z~8 and 10. Here, we use several independent theoretical models to infer constraints on the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galaxies during the epoch of reionization (EoR) from these limits. We find that the IGM must have been heated above the adiabatic cooling threshold by z~8, independent of uncertainties about the IGM ionization state and the nature of the radio background. Combining HERA limits with galaxy and EoR observations constrains the spin temperature of the z~8 neutral IGM to 27 K < T_S < 630 K (2.3 K < T_S < 640 K) at 68% (95%) confidence. They therefore also place a lower bound on X-ray heating, a previously unconstrained aspects of early galaxies. For example, if the CMB dominates the z~8 radio background, the new HERA limits imply that the first galaxies produced X-rays more efficiently than local ones (with soft band X-ray luminosities per star formation rate constrained to L_X/SFR = { 10^40.2, 10^41.9 } erg/s/(M_sun/yr) at 68% confidence), consistent with expectations of X-ray binaries in low-metallicity environments. The z~10 limits require even earlier heating if dark-matter interactions (e.g., through millicharges) cool down the hydrogen gas. Using a model in which an extra radio background is produced by galaxies, we rule out (at 95% confidence) the combination of high radio and low X-ray luminosities of L_{r,ν}/SFR > 3.9 x 10^24 W/Hz/(M_sun/yr) and L_X/SFR, 40 pages, 19 figures, accepted to ApJ

Published
2022
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30. Automated Detection of Antenna Malfunctions in Large-N Interferometers: A Case Study with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Dara Storer, Joshua S. Dillon, Daniel C. Jacobs, Miguel F. Morales, Bryna J. Hazelton, Aaron Ewall‐Wice, Zara Abdurashidova, James E. Aguirre, Paul Alexander, Zaki S. Ali, Yanga Balfour, Adam P. Beardsley, Gianni Bernardi, Tashalee S. Billings, Judd D. Bowman, Richard F. Bradley, Philip Bull, Jacob Burba, Steven Carey, Chris L. Carilli, Carina Cheng, David R. DeBoer, Eloy Lera Acedo, Matt Dexter, Scott Dynes, John Ely, Nicolas Fagnoni, Randall Fritz, Steven R. Furlanetto, Kingsley Gale‐Sides, Brian Glendenning, Deepthi Gorthi, Bradley Greig, Jasper Grobbelaar, Ziyaad Halday, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Jack Hickish, Tian Huang, Alec Josaitis, Austin Julius, MacCalvin Kariseb, Nicholas S. Kern, Joshua Kerrigan, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Saul A. Kohn, Matthew Kolopanis, Adam Lanman, Paul La Plante, Adrian Liu, Anita Loots, David MacMahon, Lourence Malan, Cresshim Malgas, Zachary E. Martinot, Andrei Mesinger, Mathakane Molewa, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Steven G. Murray, Abraham R. Neben, Bojan Nikolic, Chuneeta Devi Nunhokee, Aaron R. Parsons, Robert Pascua, Nipanjana Patra, Samantha Pieterse, Jonathan C. Pober, Nima Razavi‐Ghods, Daniel Riley, James Robnett, Kathryn Rosie, Mario G. Santos, Peter Sims, Saurabh Singh, Craig Smith, Jianrong Tan, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Peter K. G. Williams, Haoxuan Zheng, Storer, D., Dillon, J. S., Jacobs, D. C., Morales, M. F., Hazelton, B. J., Ewall-Wice, A., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., de Lera Acedo, E., Dexter, M., Dynes, S., Ely, J., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Huang, T., Josaitis, A., Julius, A., Kariseb, M., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Liu, A., Loots, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Martinot, Z. E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Mosiane, T., Murray, S. G., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Nunhokee, C. D., Parsons, A. R., Pascua, R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Riley, D., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Singh, S., Smith, C., Tan, J., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), 010308 nuclear & particles physics, FOS: Physical sciences, interferometry, Condensed Matter Physics, 01 natural sciences, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, radio cosmology, reionization, General Earth and Planetary Sciences, flagging, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, systematics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

We present a framework for identifying and flagging malfunctioning antennas in large radio interferometers. We outline two distinct categories of metrics designed to detect outliers along known failure modes of large arrays: cross-correlation metrics, based on all antenna pairs, and auto-correlation metrics, based solely on individual antennas. We define and motivate the statistical framework for all metrics used, and present tailored visualizations that aid us in clearly identifying new and existing systematics. We implement these techniques using data from 105 antennas in the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) as a case study. Finally, we provide a detailed algorithm for implementing these metrics as flagging tools on real data sets., Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures

Published
2021
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31. First Results from HERA Phase I: Upper Limits on the Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Power Spectrum

Author

The HERA Collaboration, Abdurashidova, Zara, Aguirre, James E., Alexander, Paul, Ali, Zaki S., Balfour, Yanga, Beardsley, Adam P., Bernardi, Gianni, Billings, Tashalee S., Bowman, Judd D., Bradley, Richard F., Bull, Philip, Burba, Jacob, Carey, Steve, Carilli, Chris L., Cheng, Carina, DeBoer, David R., Dexter, Matt, Acedo, Eloy de Lera, Dibblee-Barkman, Taylor, Dillon, Joshua S., Ely, John, Ewall-Wice, Aaron, Fagnoni, Nicolas, Fritz, Randall, Furlanetto, Steven R., Gale-Sides, Kingsley, Glendenning, Brian, Gorthi, Deepthi, Greig, Bradley, Grobbelaar, Jasper, Halday, Ziyaad, Hazelton, Bryna J., Hewitt, Jacqueline N., Hickish, Jack, Jacobs, Daniel C., Julius, Austin, Kern, Nicholas S., Kerrigan, Joshua, Kittiwisit, Piyanat, Kohn, Saul A., Kolopanis, Matthew, Lanman, Adam, La Plante, Paul, Lekalake, Telalo, Lewis, David, Liu, Adrian, MacMahon, David, Malan, Lourence, Malgas, Cresshim, Maree, Matthys, Martinot, Zachary E., Matsetela, Eunice, Mesinger, Andrei, Molewa, Mathakane, Morales, Miguel F., Mosiane, Tshegofalang, Murray, Steven G., Neben, Abraham R., Nikolic, Bojan, Nunhokee, Chuneeta D., Parsons, Aaron R., Patra, Nipanjana, Pascua, Robert, Pieterse, Samantha, Pober, Jonathan C., Razavi-Ghods, Nima, Ringuette, Jon, Robnett, James, Rosie, Kathryn, Sims, Peter, Singh, Saurabh, Smith, Craig, Syce, Angelo, Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan, Williams, Peter K. G., Zheng, Haoxuan, USA, GBR, ZAF, Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Dibblee-Barkman, T., Dillon, J. S., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Murray, S. G., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Nunhokee, C. D., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pascua, R., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Singh, S., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Deboer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Gorthi, D [0000-0002-0829-167X], Greig, B [0000-0002-4085-2094], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Kerrigan, J [0000-0002-1876-272X], Kittiwisit, P [0000-0003-0953-313X], Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Mesinger, A [0000-0003-3374-1772], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Murray, SG [0000-0003-3059-3823], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Nunhokee, CD [0000-0002-5445-6586], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Pober, JC [0000-0002-3492-0433], Sims, P [0000-0002-2871-0413], Singh, S [0000-0001-7755-902X], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], Williams, PKG [0000-0003-3734-3587], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, Space and Planetary Science, astro-ph.GA, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), astro-ph.CO, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

We report upper-limits on the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts 7.9 and 10.4 with 18 nights of data ($\sim36$ hours of integration) from Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). The Phase I data show evidence for systematics that can be largely suppressed with systematic models down to a dynamic range of $\sim10^9$ with respect to the peak foreground power. This yields a 95% confidence upper limit on the 21 cm power spectrum of $\Delta^2_{21} \le (30.76)^2\ {\rm mK}^2$ at $k=0.192\ h\ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ at $z=7.9$, and also $\Delta^2_{21} \le (95.74)^2\ {\rm mK}^2$ at $k=0.256\ h\ {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ at $z=10.4$. At $z=7.9$, these limits are the most sensitive to-date by over an order of magnitude. While we find evidence for residual systematics at low line-of-sight Fourier $k_\parallel$ modes, at high $k_\parallel$ modes we find our data to be largely consistent with thermal noise, an indicator that the system could benefit from deeper integrations. The observed systematics could be due to radio frequency interference, cable sub-reflections, or residual instrumental cross-coupling, and warrant further study. This analysis emphasizes algorithms that have minimal inherent signal loss, although we do perform a careful accounting in a companion paper of the small forms of loss or bias associated with the pipeline. Overall, these results are a promising first step in the development of a tuned, instrument-specific analysis pipeline for HERA, particularly as Phase II construction is completed en route to reaching the full sensitivity of the experiment., Comment: Accepted to ApJ. https://reionization.org/science/public-data-release-1/

Published
2021
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32. Foreground modelling via Gaussian process regression: an application to HERA data

Author

Max Tegmark, Aaron R. Parsons, Samavarti Gallardo, Angelo Syce, Jon Ringuette, Adam P. Beardsley, Gianni Bernardi, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Mario G. Santos, Adrian Liu, Kathryn Rosie, T. L. Grobler, Nicholas S. Kern, Brian Glendenning, Amy S. Igarashi, Siyanda Matika, Daniel C. Jacobs, Carina Cheng, Oleg Smirnov, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Haoxuan Zheng, Peter K. G. Williams, Matthys Maree, Roshan K. Benefo, Nathan Mathison, Lourence Malan, Austin Julius, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Cresshim Malgas, B. K. Gehlot, Nicolas Fagnoni, Bryna J. Hazelton, Andrei Mesinger, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Jasper Grobbelaar, David MacMahon, Deepthi Gorthi, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Joshua S. Dillon, Steve R. Furlanetto, Abraham R. Neben, Chris Carilli, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Paul Alexander, Randall Fritz, James Robnett, Telalo Lekalake, Raddwine Sell, Saul A. Kohn, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Florent Mertens, Alec Josaitis, Bradley Greig, Nipanjana Patra, Craig Smith, Austin F. Fortino, David DeBoer, Miguel F. Morales, Zaki S. Ali, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Eunice Matsetela, MacCalvin Kariseb, Gcobisa Fadana, Paul M. Chichura, Jack Hickish, James E. Aguirre, Abhik Ghosh, Anita Loots, Ghosh, A., Mertens, F., Bernardi, G., Santos, M. G., Kern, N. S., Carilli, C. L., Grobler, T. L., Koopmans, L. V. E., Jacobs, D. C., Liu, A., Parsons, A. R., Morales, M. F., Aguirre, J. E., Dillon, J. S., Hazelton, B. J., Smirnov, O. M., Gehlot, B. K., Matika, S., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Beardsley, A. P., Benefo, R. K., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Cheng, C., Chichura, P. M., Deboer, D. R., Acedo, E. D. L., Ewall-Wice, A., Fadana, G., Fagnoni, N., Fortino, A. F., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gallardo, S., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Hickish, J., Josaitis, A., Julius, A., Igarashi, A. S., Kariseb, M., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lekalake, T., Loots, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Mathison, N., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Nunhokee, C. D., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sell, R., Smith, C., Syce, A., Tegmark, M., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique (LERMA (UMR_8112)), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Cergy Pontoise (UCP), Université Paris-Seine-Université Paris-Seine-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), ITA, USA, ZAF, Astronomy, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), interferometers [instrumentation], first stars, statistical [methods], FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Signal, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Coherence (signal processing), dark ages, reionization, first stars, dark ages, instrumentation: interferometers, 010306 general physics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, Physics, methods: statistical, COSMIC cancer database, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Spectral density, Astronomy and Astrophysics, White noise, observations [cosmology], Redshift, diffuse radiation, Periodic function, interferometer [instrumentation], Space and Planetary Science, cosmology: observations, astro-ph.CO, reionization, dark ages, reionization, first star, large-scale structure of Universe, [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph], Astronomical and Space Sciences, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, observation [cosmology]
Abstract

The key challenge in the observation of the redshifted 21-cm signal from cosmic reionization is its separation from the much brighter foreground emission. Such separation relies on the different spectral properties of the two components, although, in real life, the foreground intrinsic spectrum is often corrupted by the instrumental response, inducing systematic effects that can further jeopardize the measurement of the 21-cm signal. In this paper, we use Gaussian Process Regression to model both foreground emission and instrumental systematics in $\sim 2$ hours of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. We find that a simple co-variance model with three components matches the data well, giving a residual power spectrum with white noise properties. These consist of an "intrinsic" and instrumentally corrupted component with a coherence-scale of 20 MHz and 2.4 MHz respectively (dominating the line of sight power spectrum over scales $k_{\parallel} \le 0.2$ h cMpc$^{-1}$) and a baseline dependent periodic signal with a period of $\sim 1$ MHz (dominating over $k_{\parallel} \sim 0.4 - 0.8$h cMpc$^{-1}$) which should be distinguishable from the 21-cm EoR signal whose typical coherence-scales is $\sim 0.8$ MHz., 15 pages, 15 figures, 1 table, Accepted to MNRAS

Published
2020
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33. Methods of Error Estimation for Delay Power Spectra in $21\,\textrm{cm}$ Cosmology

Author

David MacMahon, Zara Abdurashidova, Bryna J. Hazelton, David DeBoer, Austin Julius, Jon Ringuette, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Joshua Kerrigan, Adam Lanman, Jack Hickish, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Mathakane Molewa, Angelo Syce, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Jacob Burba, Kathryn Rosie, Daniel C. Jacobs, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Cresshim Malgas, Nicolas Fagnoni, James E. Aguirre, Yanga Balfour, Lourence Malan, Paul Alexander, Brian Glendenning, Carina Cheng, Deepthi Gorthi, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Joshua S. Dillon, Telalo Lekalake, Jonathan C. Pober, Steve R. Furlanetto, John Ely, Matt Dexter, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Steven Carey, Haoxuan Zheng, Gianni Bernardi, Bradley Greig, Peter Sims, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Miguel F. Morales, Craig Smith, Chris Carilli, Matthys Maree, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Zaki S. Ali, Jianrong Tan, Eunice Matsetela, Adrian Liu, Philip Bull, Bojan Nikolic, Paul La Plante, Peter K. G. Williams, Nima Razavi-Ghods, James Robnett, Nicholas S. Kern, Abraham R. Neben, Randall Fritz, Aaron R. Parsons, Adam P. Beardsley, Saul A. Kohn, Saurabh Singh, Steven G. Murray, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Nipanjana Patra, Ziyaad Halday, Tan, J., Liu, A., Kern, N. S., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Dillon, J. S., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Murray, S. G., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Nunhokee, C. D., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Singh, S., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
Physics, Noise power, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Spectral density, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Probability density function, 06 humanities and the arts, HERA, 0603 philosophy, ethics and religion, 01 natural sciences, Signal, Power (physics), Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, Space and Planetary Science, 060302 philosophy, 0103 physical sciences, Limit (mathematics), Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Algorithm, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Precise measurements of the 21 cm power spectrum are crucial for understanding the physical processes of hydrogen reionization. Currently, this probe is being pursued by low-frequency radio interferometer arrays. As these experiments come closer to making a first detection of the signal, error estimation will play an increasingly important role in setting robust measurements. Using the delay power spectrum approach, we have produced a critical examination of different ways that one can estimate error bars on the power spectrum. We do this through a synthesis of analytic work, simulations of toy models, and tests on small amounts of real data. We find that, although computed independently, the different error bar methodologies are in good agreement with each other in the noise-dominated regime of the power spectrum. For our preferred methodology, the predicted probability distribution function is consistent with the empirical noise power distributions from both simulated and real data. This diagnosis is mainly in support of the forthcoming HERA upper limit, and also is expected to be more generally applicable., Comment: 35 Pages, 9 Figures, 4 Tables. Replaced with accepted ApJ version; some clarifying text added in response to referee comments with no changes to results

Published
2021
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34. A Real Time Processing System for Big Data in Astronomy: Applications to HERA

Author

Aaron Ewall-Wice, Daniel C. Jacobs, Craig Smith, Cresshim Malgas, Nicolas Fagnoni, Nipanjana Patra, James Robnett, Lourence Malan, Yanga Balfour, Joshua Kerrigan, Ziyaad Halday, Steve R. Furlanetto, M. Wilensky, Peter Sims, Paul Alexander, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Angelo Syce, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Peter K. G. Williams, Jonathan C. Pober, Telalo Lekalake, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Brian Glendenning, D. R. DeBoer, Kingsley Gale-Sides, John Ely, Gianni Bernardi, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Mario G. Santos, Carina Cheng, Matthys Maree, Miguel F. Morales, Adrian Liu, Kathryn Rosie, Robert Pascua, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Zaki S. Ali, Nicholas S. Kern, Bryna J. Hazelton, Bojan Nikolic, Zara Abdurashidova, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Chris Carilli, Austin Julius, P. La Plante, S. Murray, Mathakane Molewa, Bradley Greig, David B. Lewis, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Adam Lanman, Deepthi Gorthi, Joshua S. Dillon, Haoxuan Zheng, Eunice Matsetela, James E. Aguirre, Dave MacMahon, S. H. Carey, E. de Lera Acedo, Aaron R. Parsons, Matthew R. Dexter, Jon Ringuette, Abraham R. Neben, Randall Fritz, Jack Hickish, Jacob Burba, Adam P. Beardsley, Saul A. Kohn, Philip Bull, La Plante, P., Williams, P. K. G., Kolopanis, M., Dillon, J. S., Beardsley, A. P., Kern, N. S., Wilensky, M., Ali, Z. S., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Balfour, Y., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., de Lera Acedo, E., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Lanman, A., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Murray, S., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Parsons, A. R., Pascua, R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Zheng, H., ITA, and USA

Subjects
Data analysis — Software, Astronomy — Software, Computer science, Real-time computing, Big data, FOS: Physical sciences, 0102 computer and information sciences, Development, Terabyte, Interference (wave propagation), 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Computer Science::Digital Libraries, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Methods, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), business.industry, SIGNAL (programming language), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, HERA, Computer Science Applications, 010201 computation theory & mathematics, Space and Planetary Science, Computer data storage, Data analysis — Physical sciences and engineering, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, business, Raw data
Abstract

As current- and next-generation astronomical instruments come online, they will generate an unprecedented deluge of data. Analyzing these data in real time presents unique conceptual and computational challenges, and their long-term storage and archiving is scientifically essential for generating reliable, reproducible results. We present here the real-time processing (RTP) system for the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), a radio interferometer endeavoring to provide the first detection of the highly redshifted 21 cm signal from Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization by an interferometer. The RTP system consists of analysis routines run on raw data shortly after they are acquired, such as calibration and detection of radio-frequency interference (RFI) events. RTP works closely with the Librarian, the HERA data storage and transfer manager which automatically ingests data and transfers copies to other clusters for post-processing analysis. Both the RTP system and the Librarian are public and open source software, which allows for them to be modified for use in other scientific collaborations. When fully constructed, HERA is projected to generate over 50 terabytes (TB) of data each night, and the RTP system enables the successful scientific analysis of these data., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, published in Astronomy and Computing

Published
2021
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35. Redundant-baseline calibration of the hydrogen epoch of reionization array

Author

Adrian Liu, Craig Smith, Paul Alexander, John Ely, Deepthi Gorthi, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Steven G. Murray, Joshua S. Dillon, Bryna J. Hazelton, Phil Bull, Nipanjana Patra, Jon Ringuette, Zara Abdurashidova, Ziyaad Halday, Aaron R. Parsons, Bradley Greig, Lourence Malan, Angelo Syce, Gianni Bernardi, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Austin Julius, Daniel C. Jacobs, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Jack Hickish, Yin-Zhe Ma, Jonathan C. Pober, Kathryn Rosie, Adam P. Beardsley, Robert Pascua, Peter K. G. Williams, Cresshim Malgas, S. H. Carey, Jacob Burba, Nicolas Fagnoni, David MacMahon, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Yanga Balfour, Joshua Kerrigan, Max Tegmark, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, David DeBoer, Abraham R. Neben, Mario G. Santos, Randall Fritz, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Eunice Matsetela, Saul A. Kohn, David Lewis, Peter Sims, Mathakane Molewa, Naomi Orosz, Steven R. Furlanetto, Paul La Plante, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Matt Dexter, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Nicholas S. Kern, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Max E. Lee, James E. Aguirre, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Miguel F. Morales, Zaki S. Ali, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Chris Carilli, Eloy de Lera Acedo, James Robnett, Brian Glendenning, Carina Cheng, Matthys Maree, Telalo Lekalake, Haoxuan Zheng, Adam Lanman, ITA, USA, ZAF, Dillon, J. S., Lee, M., Ali, Z. S., Parsons, A. R., Orosz, N., Nunhokee, C. D., La Plante, P., Beardsley, A. P., Kern, N. S., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Balfour, Y., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., de Lera Acedo, E., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Ma, Y. -Z., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Murray, S., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Pascua, R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Tegmark, M., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., Alexander, Paul [0000-0002-0292-9513], De Lera Acedo, Eloy [0000-0001-8530-6989], Nikolic, Bojan [0000-0001-7168-2705], Razavi-Ghods, Nima [0000-0003-2930-5396], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Calibration (statistics), interferometers [instrumentation], first stars, Degrees of freedom (statistics), FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Astronomical interferometer, dark ages, reionization, first stars, dark ages, instrumentation: interferometers, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Physics, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Noise (signal processing), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, HERA, Interferometry, Dark ages, reionization, first star, Space and Planetary Science, astro-ph.CO, reionization, Antenna (radio), Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Algorithm, Astronomical and Space Sciences, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

In 21 cm cosmology, precision calibration is key to the separation of the neutral hydrogen signal from very bright but spectrally-smooth astrophysical foregrounds. The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), an interferometer specialized for 21 cm cosmology and now under construction in South Africa, was designed to be largely calibrated using the self-consistency of repeated measurements of the same interferometric modes. This technique, known as "redundant-baseline calibration" resolves most of the internal degrees of freedom in the calibration problem. It assumes, however, on antenna elements with identical primary beams placed precisely on a redundant grid. In this work, we review the detailed implementation of the algorithms enabling redundant-baseline calibration and report results with HERA data. We quantify the effects of real-world non-redundancy and how they compare to the idealized scenario in which redundant measurements differ only in their noise realizations. Finally, we study how non-redundancy can produce spurious temporal structure in our calibration solutions--both in data and in simulations--and present strategies for mitigating that structure., Comment: 24 Pages, 19 Figures. Updated to match the accepted MNRAS version

Published
2020

36. Validation of the HERA Phase I Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Power Spectrum Software Pipeline

Author

Aguirre, James E., Murray, Steven G., Pascua, Robert, Martinot, Zachary E., Burba, Jacob, Dillon, Joshua S., Jacobs, Daniel C., Kern, Nicholas S., Kittiwisit, Piyanat, Kolopanis, Matthew, Lanman, Adam, Liu, Adrian, Whitler, Lily, Abdurashidova, Zara, Alexander, Paul, Ali, Zaki S., Balfour, Yanga, Beardsley, Adam P., BERNARDI, GIANNI, Billings, Tashalee S., Bowman, Judd D., Bradley, Richard F., BULL, PHILIP, Carey, Steve, Carilli, Chris L., Cheng, Carina, DeBoer, David R., Dexter, Matt, de Lera Acedo, Eloy, Ely, John, Ewall-Wice, Aaron, Fagnoni, Nicolas, Fritz, Randall, Furlanetto, Steven R., Gale-Sides, Kingsley, Glendenning, Brian, Gorthi, Deepthi, Greig, Bradley, Grobbelaar, Jasper, Halday, Ziyaad, Hazelton, Bryna J., Hewitt, Jacqueline N., Hickish, Jack, Julius, Austin, Kerrigan, Joshua, Kohn, Saul A., La Plante, Paul, Lekalake, Telalo, Lewis, David, MacMahon, David, Malan, Lourence, Malgas, Cresshim, Maree, Matthys, Matsetela, Eunice, Mesinger, Andrei, Molewa, Mathakane, Morales, Miguel F., Mosiane, Tshegofalang, Neben, Abraham R., Nikolic, Bojan, Parsons, Aaron R., Patra, Nipanjana, Pieterse, Samantha, Pober, Jonathan C., Razavi-Ghods, Nima, Ringuette, Jon, Robnett, James, Rosie, Kathryn, Santos, Mario G., Sims, Peter, Singh, Saurabh, Smith, Craig, Syce, Angelo, Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan, Williams, Peter K. G., Zheng, Haoxuan, HERA Collaboration, Aguirre, J. E., Murray, S. G., Pascua, R., Martinot, Z. E., Burba, J., Dillon, J. S., Jacobs, D. C., Kern, N. S., Kittiwisit, P., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Liu, A., Whitler, L., Abdurashidova, Z., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Carey, S., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kohn, S. A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Santos, M. G., Sims, P., Singh, S., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., USA, GBR, ZAF, Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Murray, SG [0000-0003-3059-3823], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Kittiwisit, P [0000-0003-0953-313X], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], Lanman, A [0000-0003-2116-3573], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bradley, RF [0000-0003-1172-8331], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Deboer, DR [0000-0003-3197-2294], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Gorthi, D [0000-0002-0829-167X], Greig, B [0000-0002-4085-2094], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Hewitt, JN [0000-0002-4117-570X], Kerrigan, J [0000-0002-1876-272X], Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Mesinger, A [0000-0003-3374-1772], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Pober, JC [0000-0002-3492-0433], Santos, MG [0000-0003-3892-3073], Sims, P [0000-0002-2871-0413], Singh, S [0000-0001-7755-902X], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Space and Planetary Science, 0103 physical sciences, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

We describe the validation of the HERA Phase I software pipeline by a series of modular tests, building up to an end-to-end simulation. The philosophy of this approach is to validate the software and algorithms used in the Phase I upper limit analysis on wholly synthetic data satisfying the assumptions of that analysis, not addressing whether the actual data meet these assumptions. We discuss the organization of this validation approach, the specific modular tests performed, and the construction of the end-to-end simulations. We explicitly discuss the limitations in scope of the current simulation effort. With mock visibility data generated from a known analytic power spectrum and a wide range of realistic instrumental effects and foregrounds, we demonstrate that the current pipeline produces power spectrum estimates that are consistent with known analytic inputs to within thermal noise levels (at the 2 sigma level) for k > 0.2 h/Mpc for both bands and fields considered. Our input spectrum is intentionally amplified to enable a strong `detection' at k ~0.2 h/Mpc -- at the level of ~25 sigma -- with foregrounds dominating on larger scales, and thermal noise dominating at smaller scales. Our pipeline is able to detect this amplified input signal after suppressing foregrounds with a dynamic range (foreground to noise ratio) of > 10^7. Our validation test suite uncovered several sources of scale-independent signal loss throughout the pipeline, whose amplitude is well-characterized and accounted for in the final estimates. We conclude with a discussion of the steps required for the next round of data analysis., 32 pages, 20 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal

Published
2022
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37. Detection of cosmic structures using the bispectrum phase. II. First results from application to cosmic reionization using the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Kathryn Rosie, James E. Aguirre, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, David MacMahon, Nipanjana Patra, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Ziyaad Halday, Deepthi Gorthi, Joshua S. Dillon, S. H. Carey, Paul Alexander, Haoxuan Zheng, Eunice Matsetela, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Adam P. Beardsley, Saul A. Kohn, Jon Ringuette, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Joshua Kerrigan, John Ely, Siyanda Matika, Zara Abdurashidova, David DeBoer, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Aaron R. Parsons, Matt Dexter, Bryna J. Hazelton, Adrian Liu, Nicholas S. Kern, James Kent, Jack Hickish, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, James Robnett, Miguel F. Morales, Paul La Plante, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Austin Julius, Chris Carilli, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Peter K. G. Williams, Craig Smith, Jacob Burba, Zaki S. Ali, Brian Glendenning, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Carina Cheng, Gianni Bernardi, David B. Lewis, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Abraham R. Neben, Randall Fritz, Steven R. Furlanetto, Mathakane Molewa, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Lourence Malan, Bradley Greig, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Adam Lanman, Peter Sims, Daniel C. Jacobs, Cresshim Malgas, Nicolas Fagnoni, Yanga Balfour, Angelo Syce, Telalo Lekalake, Matthys Maree, Thyagarajan, N., Carilli, C. L., Nikolic, B., Kent, J., Mesinger, A., Kern, N. S., Bernardi, G., Matika, S., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Burba, J., Carey, S., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., Acedo, E. D. L., Dillon, J. S., Ely, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Lewis, D., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Williams, P. K. G., Zheng, H., Nikolic, Bojan [0000-0001-7168-2705], Kent, James [0000-0003-3331-2409], Alexander, Paul [0000-0002-0292-9513], Razavi-Ghods, Nima [0000-0003-2930-5396], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, ITA, USA, and ZAF

Subjects
Brightness, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Atomic, 01 natural sciences, Cosmology, Radio telescope, Particle and Plasma Physics, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Nuclear, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysic, 010306 general physics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Reionization, Physics, Quantum Physics, COSMIC cancer database, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Molecular, Nuclear & Particles Physics, Redshift, 5101 Astronomical Sciences, astro-ph.CO, Hydrogen line, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 51 Physical Sciences, Bispectrum, Astronomical and Space Sciences, astro-ph.IM, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

Characterizing the epoch of reionization (EoR) at $z\gtrsim 6$ via the redshifted 21 cm line of neutral Hydrogen (HI) is critical to modern astrophysics and cosmology, and thus a key science goal of many current and planned low-frequency radio telescopes. The primary challenge to detecting this signal is the overwhelmingly bright foreground emission at these frequencies, placing stringent requirements on the knowledge of the instruments and inaccuracies in analyses. Results from these experiments have largely been limited not by thermal sensitivity but by systematics, particularly caused by the inability to calibrate the instrument to high accuracy. The interferometric bispectrum phase is immune to antenna-based calibration and errors therein, and presents an independent alternative to detect the EoR HI fluctuations while largely avoiding calibration systematics. Here, we provide a demonstration of this technique on a subset of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to place approximate constraints on the brightness temperature of the intergalactic medium (IGM). From this limited data, at $z=7.7$ we infer "$1\sigma$" upper limits on the IGM brightness temperature to be $\le 316$ "pseudo" mK at $\kappa_\parallel=0.33$ "pseudo" $h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ (data-limited) and $\le 1000$ "pseudo" mK at $\kappa_\parallel=0.875$ "pseudo" $h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ (noise-limited). The "pseudo" units denote only an approximate and not an exact correspondence to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. By propagating models in parallel to the data analysis, we confirm that the dynamic range required to separate the cosmic HI signal from the foregrounds is similar to that in standard approaches, and the power spectrum of the bispectrum phase is still data-limited (at $\gtrsim 10^6$ dynamic range) indicating scope for further improvement in sensitivity as the array build-out continues., Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures (including sub-figures). Published in PhRvD. Abstract may be slightly abridged compared to the actual manuscript due to length limitations on arXiv

Published
2020

38. Mitigating Internal Instrument Coupling for 21 cm Cosmology. II. A Method Demonstration with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Nipanjana Patra, Ziyaad Halday, Adrian Liu, Matt Dexter, Joshua Kerrigan, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Chris Carilli, David DeBoer, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Peter K. G. Williams, Zara Abdurashidova, Haoxuan Zheng, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Kathryn Rosie, Austin Julius, Adam P. Beardsley, Philip Bull, David MacMahon, Adam Lanman, Jack Hickish, Gianni Bernardi, James Robnett, Angelo Syce, Jacob Burba, Bryna J. Hazelton, Deepthi Gorthi, Joshua S. Dillon, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Brian Glendenning, Matthys Maree, Paul Alexander, Carina Cheng, Miguel F. Morales, Mathakane Molewa, Zaki S. Ali, Bradley Greig, Craig Smith, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Saul A. Kohn, Telalo Lekalake, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Jon Ringuette, Steve R. Furlanetto, Lourence Malan, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Aaron R. Parsons, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Nicholas S. Kern, Zachary E. Martinot, Paul La Plante, Steven G. Murray, Daniel C. Jacobs, Cresshim Malgas, Abraham R. Neben, Nicolas Fagnoni, Randall Fritz, Yanga Balfour, Eunice Matsetela, Peter Sims, James E. Aguirre, ITA, USA, ZAF, Kern, N. S., Parsons, A. R., Dillon, J. S., Lanman, A. E., Liu, A., Bull, P., Ewall-Wice, A., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Burba, J., Carilli, C. L., Chen, Cheng, Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., De Lera Acedo, E., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., La Plante, P., Lekalake, T., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Murray, S. G., Neben, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
Coupling, Physics, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Dynamic range, Spectral density, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics, HERA, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Signal, Noise floor, Cosmology, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, Space and Planetary Science, 0103 physical sciences, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Abstract

We present a study of internal reflection and cross-coupling systematics in Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). In a companion paper, we outlined the mathematical formalism for such systematics and presented algorithms for modeling and removing them from the data. In this work, we apply these techniques to data from HERA’s first observing season as a method demonstration. The data show evidence for systematics that, without removal, would hinder a detection of the 21 cm power spectrum for the targeted Epoch of Reionization (EoR) line-of-sight modes in the range 0.2 h -1 Mpc-1 < {k}\parallel < 0.5 h -1 Mpc-1. In particular, we find evidence for nonnegligible amounts of spectral structure in the raw autocorrelations that overlaps with the EoR window and is suggestive of complex instrumental effects. Through systematic modeling on a single night of data, we find we can recover these modes in the power spectrum down to the integrated noise floor, achieving a dynamic range in the EoR window of 106 in power (mK2 units) with respect to the bright galactic foreground signal. Future work with deeper integrations will help determine whether these systematics can continue to be mitigated down to EoR levels. For future observing seasons, HERA will have upgraded analog and digital hardware to better control these systematics in the field.

Published
2020

39. Optimizing sparse RFI prediction using deep learning

Author

Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Adam Lanman, Kathryn Rosie, Angelo Syce, Gianni Bernardi, Deepthi Gorthi, Joshua S. Dillon, Peter Sims, Judd D. Bowman, Brian Glendenning, Carina Cheng, Samantha Pieterse, Craig Smith, Nicholas S. Kern, Eunice Matsetela, Joshua Kerrigan, Miguel F. Morales, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Mathakane Molewa, Zaki S. Ali, Paul Alexander, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Daniel C. Jacobs, Jack Hickish, Haoxuan Zheng, David MacMahon, Telalo Lekalake, Matt Dexter, Cresshim Malgas, Nicolas Fagnoni, Jacob Burba, Yanga Balfour, Adam P. Beardsley, Bradley Greig, Abraham R. Neben, Steve R. Furlanetto, Matthys Maree, Julia Estrada, David DeBoer, Randall Fritz, James E. Aguirre, Nipanjana Patra, Peter K. G. Williams, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Ziyaad Halday, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Paul La Plante, Aaron R. Parsons, Lourence Malan, Adrian Liu, Zara Abdurashidova, Austin Julius, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Jon Ringuette, James Robnett, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Saul A. Kohn, Chris Carilli, Zachary E. Martinot, Bryna J. Hazelton, USA, Kerrigan, J., la Plante, P., Kohn, S., Pober, J. C., Aguirre, J., Abdurashidova, Z., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Burba, J., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., de Lera Acedo, E., Dillon, J. S., Estrada, J., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Glendenning, B., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Gorthi, D., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kern, N. S., Kittiwisit, P., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Lekalake, T., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), FOS: Physical sciences, Context (language use), 02 engineering and technology, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Radio telescope, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 020204 information systems, 0103 physical sciences, 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, data analysis [methods], 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Discrete mathematics, Physics, business.industry, Deep learning, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, HERA, interferometric [techniques], Amplitude, Space and Planetary Science, data analysis – Techniques: interferometric [Methods], astro-ph.CO, Artificial intelligence, Radio interferometer, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, business, Astronomical and Space Sciences, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is an ever-present limiting factor among radio telescopes even in the most remote observing locations. When looking to retain the maximum amount of sensitivity and reduce contamination for Epoch of Reionization studies, the identification and removal of RFI is especially important. In addition to improved RFI identification, we must also take into account computational efficiency of the RFI-Identification algorithm as radio interferometer arrays such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array grow larger in number of receivers. To address this, we present a Deep Fully Convolutional Neural Network (DFCN) that is comprehensive in its use of interferometric data, where both amplitude and phase information are used jointly for identifying RFI. We train the network using simulated HERA visibilities containing mock RFI, yielding a known "ground truth" dataset for evaluating the accuracy of various RFI algorithms. Evaluation of the DFCN model is performed on observations from the 67 dish build-out, HERA-67, and achieves a data throughput of 1.6$\times 10^{5}$ HERA time-ordered 1024 channeled visibilities per hour per GPU. We determine that relative to an amplitude only network including visibility phase adds important adjacent time-frequency context which increases discrimination between RFI and Non-RFI. The inclusion of phase when predicting achieves a Recall of 0.81, Precision of 0.58, and $F_{2}$ score of 0.75 as applied to our HERA-67 observations., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Published
2019

40. Measuring HERA's Primary Beam in Situ: Methodology and First Results

Author

Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Daniel C. Jacobs, Bradley Greig, Jasper Grobbelaar, Cresshim Malgas, Craig Smith, Nicolas Fagnoni, Peter Sims, Yanga Balfour, Joshua Kerrigan, Angelo Syce, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Aaron R. Parsons, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Chris Carilli, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Nicholas S. Kern, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Peter K. G. Williams, Paul Alexander, Eunice Matsetela, Saul A. Kohn, Adam Lanman, Paul La Plante, David DeBoer, Nima Razavi-Ghods, David MacMahon, Bryna J. Hazelton, Nipanjana Patra, Adam P. Beardsley, Jon Ringuette, Matt Dexter, Ziyaad Halday, Deepthi Gorthi, Adrian Liu, Brian Glendenning, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Abraham R. Neben, Joshua S. Dillon, Gianni Bernardi, Zara Abdurashidova, Carina Cheng, Lourence Malan, Judd D. Bowman, Randall Fritz, Samantha Pieterse, Jacob Burba, Miguel F. Morales, Austin Julius, Zaki S. Ali, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, James Robnett, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, James E. Aguirre, Kathryn Rosie, Steve R. Furlanetto, Mathakane Molewa, Haoxuan Zheng, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Matthys Maree, Telalo Lekalake, ITA, USA, CAF, Nunhokee, C. D., Parsons, A. R., Kern, N. S., Nikolic, B., Pober, J. C., Bernardi, G., Carilli, C. L., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Burba, J., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Dexter, M., Acedo, E. D. L., Dillon, J. S., Ewall-Wice, A., Fagnoni, N., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kerrigan, J., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Plante, P. L., Lekalake, T., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
In situ, Physics, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, HERA, 01 natural sciences, Cosmology, Nuclear physics, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, Space and Planetary Science, Primary (astronomy), 0103 physical sciences, H I line emission, Radio astronomy, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 010306 general physics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Beam (structure), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract

The central challenge in 21~cm cosmology is isolating the cosmological signal from bright foregrounds. Many separation techniques rely on the accurate knowledge of the sky and the instrumental response, including the antenna primary beam. For drift-scan telescopes such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array \citep[HERA, ][]{DeBoer2017} that do not move, primary beam characterization is particularly challenging because standard beam-calibration routines do not apply \citep{Cornwell2005} and current techniques require accurate source catalogs at the telescope resolution. We present an extension of the method from \citet{Pober2012} where they use beam symmetries to create a network of overlapping source tracks that break the degeneracy between source flux density and beam response and allow their simultaneous estimation. We fit the beam response of our instrument using early HERA observations and find that our results agree well with electromagnetic simulations down to a -20~dB level in power relative to peak gain for sources with high signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we construct a source catalog with 90 sources down to a flux density of 1.4~Jy at 151~MHz., 22 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Published
2020
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41. Understanding the HERA Phase I receiver system with simulations and its impact on the detectability of the EoR delay power spectrum

Author

Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Adam Lanman, Lourence Malan, Saul A. Kohn, Alec Josaitis, Adrian Liu, Bryna J. Hazelton, Matt Dexter, Haoxuan Zheng, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Nicholas S. Kern, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Deepthi Gorthi, Joshua S. Dillon, Paul Alexander, Honggeun Kim, Craig Smith, Miguel F. Morales, Steve R. Furlanetto, Adam P. Beardsley, Mathakane Molewa, Zaki S. Ali, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Phil Bull, Nipanjana Patra, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Ziyaad Halday, Angelo Syce, Abraham R. Neben, Randall Fritz, Juan Mena Parra, Jack Hickish, Aaron R. Parsons, Joshua Kerrigan, Brian Glendenning, Carina Cheng, Paul La Plante, James Robnett, Jacob Burba, Chris Carilli, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Telalo Lekalake, Zara Abdurashidova, Kathryn Rosie, Gianni Bernardi, David MacMahon, Austin Julius, Daniel C. Jacobs, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Cresshim Malgas, Nicolas Fagnoni, Yanga Balfour, Matthys Maree, Peter Sims, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Bradley Greig, James E. Aguirre, Peter K. G. Williams, Eunice Matsetela, Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, David DeBoer, ITA, USA, GBR, Fagnoni, N., De Lera Acedo, E., Deboer, D. R., Abdurashidova, Z., Aguirre, J. E., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Balfour, Y., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Billings, T. S., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Bull, P., Burba, J., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Dexter, M., Dillon, J. S., Ewall-Wice, A., Fritz, R., Furlanetto, S. R., Gale-Sides, K., Glendenning, B., Gorthi, D., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Halday, Z., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Josaitis, A., Julius, A., Kern, N. S., Kerrigan, J., Kim, H., Kittiwisit, P., Kohn, S. A., Kolopanis, M., Lanman, A., Plante, P. L., Lekalake, T., Liu, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Martinot, Z. E., Matsetela, E., Mena Parra, J., Mesinger, A., Molewa, M., Morales, M. F., Mosiane, T., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Razavi-Ghods, N., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sims, P., Smith, C., Syce, A., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
interferometers [instrumentation], first stars, Phase (waves), FOS: Physical sciences, 02 engineering and technology, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, law.invention, Radio telescope, Telescope, Optics, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, law, 0103 physical sciences, 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, dark ages, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Physics, business.industry, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Spectral density, 020206 networking & telecommunications, Astronomy and Astrophysics, numerical [methods], telescopes, HERA, interferometric [techniques], interferometer [instrumentation], Transmission (telecommunications), Space and Planetary Science, reionization, dark ages, reionization, first star, Antenna (radio), Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, business, Astronomical and Space Sciences, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

The detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) delay power spectrum using a "foreground avoidance method" highly depends on the instrument chromaticity. The systematic effects induced by the radio-telescope spread the foreground signal in the delay domain, which contaminates the EoR window theoretically observable. Applied to the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), this paper combines detailed electromagnetic and electrical simulations in order to model the chromatic effects of the instrument, and quantify its frequency and time responses. In particular, the effects of the analogue receiver, transmission cables, and mutual coupling are included. These simulations are able to accurately predict the intensity of the reflections occurring in the 150-m cable which links the antenna to the back-end. They also show that electromagnetic waves can propagate from one dish to another one through large sections of the array due to mutual coupling. The simulated system time response is attenuated by a factor $10^{4}$ after a characteristic delay which depends on the size of the array and on the antenna position. Ultimately, the system response is attenuated by a factor $10^{5}$ after 1400 ns because of the reflections in the cable, which corresponds to characterizable ${k_\parallel}$-modes above 0.7 $h\;\rm{Mpc}^{-1}$ at 150 MHz. Thus, this new study shows that the detection of the EoR signal with HERA Phase I will be more challenging than expected. On the other hand, it improves our understanding of the telescope, which is essential to mitigate the instrument chromaticity., Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures - Submitted to MNRAS - 2nd revision

Published
2019
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42. The HERA-19 Commissioning Array: Direction-dependent Effects

Author

Judd D. Bowman, Samantha Pieterse, Daniel C. Jacobs, Gcobisa Fadana, Paul M. Chichura, C. H. Smith, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Joshua S. Dillon, Jon Ringuette, Cresshim Malgas, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Nicolas Fagnoni, Jasper Grobbelaar, Chris Carilli, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Eloy de Lera Acedo, David DeBoer, Chuneeta D. Nunhokee, Miguel F. Morales, Roshan K. Benefo, Haoxuan Zheng, Brian Glendenning, Austin Julius, Amy S. Igarashi, Gianni Bernardi, Carina Cheng, Zaki S. Ali, Nipanjana Patra, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Anita Loots, Angelo Syce, Peter Williams, Paul Alexander, Lourence Malan, Eunice Matsetela, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Steven R. Furlanetto, James E. Aguirre, Raddwine Sell, MacCalvin Kariseb, Telalo Lekalake, Max Tegmark, Matthys Maree, Bryna J. Hazelton, Bradley Greig, Adrian Liu, Jack Hickish, Nicholas S. Kern, Paul La Plante, Abraham R. Neben, Randall Fritz, Aaron R. Parsons, Samavarti Gallardo, Austin F. Fortino, Philip Bull, James Robnett, David MacMahon, Adam P. Beardsley, Saul A. Kohn, Kathryn Rosie, Nathan Mathison, ITA, USA, Kohn, SA [0000-0001-6744-5328], Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], La Plante, P [0000-0002-4693-0102], Nunhokee, CD [0000-0002-5445-6586], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Liu, A [0000-0001-6876-0928], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Dillon, JS [0000-0003-3336-9958], Ewall-Wice, A [0000-0002-0086-7363], Furlanetto, SR [0000-0002-0658-1243], Hazelton, BJ [0000-0001-7532-645X], Jacobs, DC [0000-0002-0917-2269], Kolopanis, M [0000-0002-2950-2974], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Tegmark, M [0000-0001-7670-7190], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], Williams, PKG [0000-0003-3734-3587], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, Kohn, S. A., Aguirre, J. E., La Plante, P., Billings, T. S., Chichura, P. M., Fortino, A. F., Igarashi, A. S., Benefo, R. K., Gallardo, S., Martinot, Z. E., Nunhokee, C. D., Kern, N. S., Bull, P., Liu, A., Alexander, P., Ali, Z. S., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Bowman, J. D., Bradley, R. F., Carilli, C. L., Cheng, C., Deboer, D. R., Acedo, E. D. L., Dillon, J. S., Ewall-Wice, A., Fadana, G., Fagnoni, N., Furlanetto, S. R., Glendenning, B., Greig, B., Grobbelaar, J., Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Hickish, J., Jacobs, D. C., Julius, A., Kariseb, M., Kolopanis, M., Lekalake, T., Loots, A., Macmahon, D., Malan, L., Malgas, C., Maree, M., Mathison, N., Matsetela, E., Mesinger, A., Morales, M. F., Neben, A. R., Nikolic, B., Parsons, A. R., Patra, N., Pieterse, S., Pober, J. C., Randall, F., Razavi-Ghods, N., Ringuette, J., Robnett, J., Rosie, K., Sell, R., Smith, C., Syce, A., Tegmark, M., Thyagarajan, N., Williams, P. K. G., and Zheng, H.

Subjects
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, interferometers [instrumentation], Atomic, Physical Chemistry, 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Spectral line, Particle and Plasma Physics, Astronomical interferometer, Stokes parameters, dark ages, instrumentation: interferometers, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Physics, Linear polarization, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, HERA, Polarization (waves), observations [cosmology], interferometric [techniques], interferometer [instrumentation], Amplitude, techniques: interferometric, symbols, reionization, dark ages, reionization, first star, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences, observation [cosmology], Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural), first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, symbols.namesake, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 0103 physical sciences, Nuclear, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, polarization, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Molecular, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Computational physics, Space and Planetary Science, 13. Climate action, cosmology: observations, astro-ph.IM
Abstract

Foreground power dominates the measurements of interferometers that seek a statistical detection of highly-redshifted HI emission from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). The chromaticity of the instrument creates a boundary in the Fourier transform of frequency (proportional to $k_\parallel$) between spectrally smooth emission, characteristic of the strong synchrotron foreground (the "wedge"), and the spectrally structured emission from HI in the EoR (the "EoR window"). Faraday rotation can inject spectral structure into otherwise smooth polarized foreground emission, which through instrument effects or miscalibration could possibly pollute the EoR window. Using data from the HERA 19-element commissioning array, we investigate the polarization response of this new instrument in the power spectrum domain. We perform a simple image-based calibration based on the unpolarized diffuse emission of the Global Sky Model, and show that it achieves qualitative redundancy between the nominally-redundant baselines of the array and reasonable amplitude accuracy. We construct power spectra of all fully polarized coherencies in all pseudo-Stokes parameters. We compare to simulations based on an unpolarized diffuse sky model and detailed electromagnetic simulations of the dish and feed, confirming that in Stokes I, the calibration does not add significant spectral structure beyond the expected level. Further, this calibration is stable over the 8 days of observations considered. Excess power is seen in the power spectra of the linear polarization Stokes parameters which is not easily attributable to leakage via the primary beam, and results from some combination of residual calibration errors and actual polarized emission. Stokes V is found to be highly discrepant from the expectation of zero power, strongly pointing to the need for more accurate polarized calibration., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, submitted to ApJ

Published
2018
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