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1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Mapper of the IGM spin temperature: instrument overview.

Author

Monsalve, R A, Altamirano, C, Bidula, V, Bustos, R, Bye, C H, Chiang, H C, Díaz, M, Fernández, B, Guo, X, Hendricksen, I, Hornecker, E, Lucero, F, Mani, H, McGee, F, Mena, F P, Pessôa, M, Prabhakar, G, Restrepo, O, Sievers, J L, and Thyagarajan, N

Subjects
TEMPERATURE measuring instruments, MICROWAVE radiometers, ANTENNAS (Electronics), MIDDLE Ages, INTERSTELLAR medium, RADIOMETERS
Abstract

The observation of the global 21 cm signal produced by neutral hydrogen gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the Dark Ages, Cosmic Dawn, and Epoch of Reionization requires measurements with extremely well-calibrated wideband radiometers. We describe the design and characterization of the Mapper of the IGM Spin Temperature (MIST), which is a new ground-based, single-antenna, global 21 cm experiment. The design of MIST was guided by the objectives of avoiding systematics from an antenna ground plane and cables around the antenna, as well as maximizing the instrument's on-sky efficiency and portability for operations at remote sites. We have built two MIST instruments, which observe in the range 25–105 MHz. For the 21 cm signal, this frequency range approximately corresponds to redshifts 55.5 > z > 12.5, encompassing the Dark Ages and Cosmic Dawn. The MIST antenna is a horizontal blade dipole of 2.42 m in length, 60 cm in width, and 52 cm in height above the ground. This antenna operates without a metal ground plane. The instruments run on 12 V batteries and have a maximum power consumption of 17 W. The batteries and electronics are contained in a single receiver box located under the antenna. We present the characterization of the instruments using electromagnetic simulations and lab measurements. We also show sample sky measurements from recent observations at remote sites in California, Nevada, and the Canadian High Arctic. These measurements indicate that the instruments perform as expected. Detailed analyses of the sky measurements are left for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
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6. 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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7. 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

8. Parametrizing Epoch of Reionization foregrounds: a deep survey of low-frequency point-source spectra with the Murchison Widefield Array

Author

Offringa, A. R., Trott, C. M., Hurley-Walker, N., Johnston-Hollitt, M., McKinley, B., Barry, N., Beardsley, A. P., Bowman, J. D., Briggs, F., Carroll, P., Dillon, J. S., Ewall-Wice, A., Feng, L., Gaensler, B, Greenhill, Lincoln Jared, Hazelton, B. J., Hewitt, J. N., Jacobs, D. C., Kim, H.-S., Kittiwisit, P., Lenc, E., Line, J., Loeb, Abraham, Mitchell, D. A., Morales, M. F., Neben, A. R., Paul, S., Pindor, B., Pober, J. C., Procopio, P., Riding, J., Sethi, S. K., Shankar, N. U., Subrahmanyan, R., Sullivan, I. S., Tegmark, M., Thyagarajan, N., Tingay, S. J., Wayth, R. B., Webster, R. L., and Wyithe, J. S. B.

Subjects
cosmology: dark ages, reionization, first stars, radio continuum: general, radio lines: galaxies, methods: observational, techniques: interferometric
Abstract

Experiments that pursue detection of signals from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are relying on spectral smoothness of source spectra at low frequencies. This article empirically explores the effect of foreground spectra on EoR experiments by measuring high-resolution full-polarization spectra for the 586 brightest unresolved sources in one of the MWA EoR fields using 45 h of observation. A novel peeling scheme is used to subtract 2500 sources from the visibilities with ionospheric and beam corrections, resulting in the deepest, confusion-limited MWA image so far. The resulting spectra are found to be affected by instrumental effects, which limit the constraints that can be set on source-intrinsic spectral structure. The sensitivity and power-spectrum of the spectra are analysed, and it is found that the spectra of residuals are dominated by PSF sidelobes from nearby undeconvolved sources. We release a catalogue describing the spectral parameters for each measured source., Astronomy

Published
2016
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9. The Murchison Widefield Array 21 cm Power Spectrum Analysis Methodology

Author

Jacobs, Daniel C., Hazelton, B. J., Trott, C. M., Dillon, Joshua S., Pindor, B., Sullivan, I. S., Pober, J. C., Barry, N., Beardsley, A. P., Bernardi, G., Bowman, Judd D., Briggs, F., Cappallo, R. J., Carroll, P., Corey, B. E., de Oliveira-Costa, A., Emrich, D., Ewall-Wice, A., Feng, L., Gaensler, B, Goeke, R., Greenhill, Lincoln Jared, Hewitt, J. N., Hurley-Walker, N., Johnston-Hollitt, M., Kaplan, D. L., Kasper, J. C., Kim, HS, Kratzenberg, E., Lenc, E., Line, J., Loeb, Abraham, Lonsdale, C. J., Lynch, M. J., McKinley, B., McWhirter, S. R., Mitchell, D. A., Morales, M. F., Morgan, E., Neben, A. R., Thyagarajan, N., Oberoi, D., Offringa, A. R., Ord, S, Paul, S., Prabu, T., Procopio, P., Riding, J., Rogers, A. E. E., Roshi, A., Shankar, N. Udaya, Sethi, Shiv K., Srivani, K. S., Subrahmanyan, R., Tegmark, M., Tingay, S. J., Waterson, M., Wayth, R. B., Webster, R. L., Whitney, A. R., Williams, A., Williams, C. L., Wu, C., and Wyithe, J. S. B.

Subjects
cosmology: dark ages, reionization, first stars, methods: data analysis, techniques: interferometric
Abstract

We present the 21 cm power spectrum analysis approach of the Murchison Widefield Array Epoch of Reionization project. In this paper, we compare the outputs of multiple pipelines for the purpose of validating statistical limits cosmological hydrogen at redshifts between 6 and 12. Multiple, independent, data calibration and reduction pipelines are used to make power spectrum limits on a fiducial night of data. Comparing the outputs of imaging and power spectrum stages highlights differences in calibration, foreground subtraction and power spectrum calculation. The power spectra found using these different methods span a space defined by the various tradeoffs between speed, accuracy, and systematic control. Lessons learned from comparing the pipelines range from the algorithmic to the prosaically mundane; all demonstrate the many pitfalls of neglecting reproducibility. We briefly discuss the way these different methods attempt to handle the question of evaluating a significant detection in the presence of foregrounds., Astronomy

Published
2016
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10. Imaging and Modeling Data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

Author

Juan Mena Parra, Piyanat Kittiwisit, Kingsley Gale-Sides, Joshua Kerrigan, Honggeun Kim, Adrian Liu, Phil Bull, Nipanjana Patra, Ziyaad Halday, Matthys Maree, James E. Aguirre, Bryna J. Hazelton, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Zara Abdurashidova, Saul A. Kohn, Judd D. Bowman, Matt Dexter, K. Gale-Sides, Samantha Pieterse, Paul La Plante, Mathakane Molewa, James Kent, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Eunice Matsetela, Nicolas Fagnoni, Adam P. Beardsley, Alec Josaitis, Kathryn Rosie, David MacMahon, Jonathan C. Pober, Andrei Mesinger, Jasper Grobbelaar, Tashalee S. Billings, Zachary E. Martinot, Tshegofalang Mosiane, Abraham R. Neben, Austin Julius, Randall Fritz, Siyanda Matika, Brian Glendenning, Carina Cheng, Peter Sims, Paul Alexander, Daniel C. Jacobs, Steve R. Furlanetto, Gianni Bernardi, Bradley Greig, Lourence Malan, Nima Razavi-Ghods, Cresshim Malgas, Yanga Balfour, Nicholas S. Kern, Telalo Lekalake, David DeBoer, Aaron R. Parsons, Richard F. Bradley, Matthew Kolopanis, Deepthi Gorthi, Peter K. G. Williams, James Robnett, Joshua S. Dillon, Chris Carilli, Eloy de Lera Acedo, Miguel F. Morales, Zaki S. Ali, Bojan Nikolic, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Jack Hickish, Jacob Burba, Angelo Syce, Haoxuan Zheng, Adam Lanman, ITA, USA, ZAF, Carilli, C. L., Thyagarajan, N., Kent, J., Nikolic, B., Gale-Sides, K., Kern, N. S., Bernardi, G., Mesinger, A., Matika, S., Abdurashidova, Zara, Aguirre, James E., Paul, Alexander Christian, Ali, Zaki S., Balfour, Yanga, Beardsley, Adam P., Billings, Tashalee S., Bowman, Judd D., Bradley, Richard F., Bull, Phil, Burba, Jacob, Cheng, Carina, Deboer, David R., Dexter, Matt, Acedo, Eloy de Lera, Dillon, Joshua S., Ewall-Wice, Aaron, Fagnoni, Nicola, Fritz, Randall, Furlanetto, Steve 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., Josaitis, Alec, Julius, Austin, Kerrigan, Joshua, Kim, Honggeun, Kittiwisit, Piyanat, Kohn, Saul A., Kolopanis, Matthew, Lanman, Adam, Plante, Paul La, Lekalake, Telalo, Liu, Adrian, Macmahon, David, Malan, Lourence, Malgas, Cresshim, Maree, Matthy, Martinot, Zachary E., Matsetela, Eunice, Molewa, Mathakane, Morales, Miguel F., Mosiane, Tshegofalang, Neben, Abraham R., Parra, Juan Mena, Parsons, Aaron R., Patra, Nipanjana, Pieterse, Samantha, Pober, Jonathan C., Razavi-Ghods, Nima, Robnett, Jame, Rosie, Kathryn, Sims, Peter, Syce, Angelo, Williams, Peter K. G., Zheng, Haoxuan, Carilli, CL [0000-0001-6647-3861], Thyagarajan, N [0000-0003-1602-7868], Kern, NS [0000-0002-8211-1892], Bernardi, G [0000-0002-0916-7443], Aguirre, JE [0000-0002-4810-666X], Beardsley, AP [0000-0001-9428-8233], Bowman, JD [0000-0002-8475-2036], Bull, P [0000-0001-5668-3101], 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], 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], Morales, MF [0000-0001-7694-4030], Neben, AR [0000-0001-7776-7240], Patra, N [0000-0002-9457-1941], Pober, JC [0000-0002-3492-0433], Williams, PKG [0000-0003-3734-3587], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
Physics, Cosmological evolution, Hydrogen, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy, chemistry.chemical_element, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Cosmology, Data modeling, chemistry, Reionization, Space and Planetary Science, 0103 physical sciences, Radio interferometry, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Abstract

We analyze data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. This is the third in a series of papers on the closure phase delay-spectrum technique designed to detect the HI 21cm 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 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 $\sim 80$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 $\sim 10$ 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 implications due to this missing structure in the models, including calibration, and in the search for the HI 21cm signal, as well as possible mitigation techniques., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for the ApJ Supplement

Published
2020

11. 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
Full Text
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12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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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16. 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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17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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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