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1. Probing ionospheric structures using the LOFAR radio telescope

Author: Ilian T. Iliev, R. J. van Weeren, Vibor Jelić, F. B. Abdalla, K. M. B. Asad, Michiel A. Brentjens, S. Kazemi, Saleem Zaroubi, A. H. Patil, J. Noordam, Emma Chapman, A. R. Offringa, Sarod Yatawatta, A. G. de Bruyn, Geraint Harker, Elizabeth R. Fernandez, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Harish Vedantham, Joel N. Bregman, B. Ciardi, S. van der Tol, Abhik Ghosh, S. Bus, V. N. Pandey, W. N. Brouw, M. Mevius, and Stefan J. Wijnholds
Subjects: Length scale, Physics, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Total electron content, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics, LOFAR, Condensed Matter Physics, 01 natural sciences, Radio telescope, Interferometry, Earth's magnetic field, 0103 physical sciences, General Earth and Planetary Sciences, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ionosphere, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Abstract: LOFAR is the LOw-Frequency Radio interferometer ARray located at midlatitude (52°53′N). Here we present results on ionospheric structures derived from 29 LOFAR nighttime observations during the winters of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. We show that LOFAR is able to determine differential ionospheric total electron content values with an accuracy better than 0.001 total electron content unit = 1016m−2 over distances ranging between 1 and 100 km. For all observations the power law behavior of the phase structure function is confirmed over a long range of baseline lengths, between 1 and 80 km, with a slope that is, in general, larger than the 5/3 expected for pure Kolmogorov turbulence. The measured average slope is 1.89 with a one standard deviation spread of 0.1. The diffractive scale, i.e., the length scale where the phase variance is 1rad2, is shown to be an easily obtained single number that represents the ionospheric quality of a radio interferometric observation. A small diffractive scale is equivalent to high phase variability over the field of view as well as a short time coherence of the signal, which limits calibration and imaging quality. For the studied observations the diffractive scales at 150 MHz vary between 3.5 and 30 km. A diffractive scale above 5 km, pertinent to about 90% of the observations, is considered sufficient for the high dynamic range imaging needed for the LOFAR epoch of reionization project. For most nights the ionospheric irregularities were anisotropic, with the structures being aligned with the Earth magnetic field in about 60% of the observations.
Published: 2016

2. Parametrizations of the 21-cm global signal and parameter estimation from single-dipole experiments

Author: Jack O. Burns, Geraint Harker, Jordan Mirocha, Jonathan R. Pritchard, Imperial College Trust, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Commission of the European Communities, and Science and Technology Facilities Council [2006-2012]
Subjects: DARK-AGES, MODELS, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Signal, cosmology: theory, 0103 physical sciences, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Statistical physics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Physics, methods: statistical, Science & Technology, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Estimation theory, Hyperbolic function, COSMIC DAWN, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Dark Ages Radio Explorer, diffuse radiation, Maxima and minima, 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences, Space and Planetary Science, COSMOLOGY, Physical Sciences, astro-ph.CO, Radio frequency, radio lines: general, Parametrization
Abstract: One approach to extracting the global 21-cm signal from total-power measurements at low radio frequencies is to parametrize the different contributions to the data and then fit for these parameters. We examine parametrizations of the 21-cm signal itself, and propose one based on modelling the Ly α background, intergalactic medium temperature and hydrogen ionized fraction using tanh functions. This captures the shape of the signal from a physical modelling code better than an earlier parametrization based on interpolating between maxima and minima of the signal, and imposes a greater level of physical plausibility. This allows less biased constraints on the turning points of the signal, even though these are not explicitly fit for. Biases can also be alleviated by discarding information which is less robustly described by the parametrization, for example by ignoring detailed shape information coming from the covariances between turning points or from the high-frequency parts of the signal, or by marginalizing over the high-frequency parts of the signal by fitting a more complex foreground model. The fits are sufficiently accurate to be usable for experiments gathering 1000 h of data, though in this case it may be important to choose observing windows which do not include the brightest areas of the foregrounds. Our assumption of pointed, single-antenna observations and very broad-band fitting makes these results particularly applicable to experiments such as the Dark Ages Radio Explorer, which would study the global 21-cm signal from the clean environment of a low lunar orbit, taking data from the far side.
Published: 2015

3. Polarization leakage in epoch of reionization windows - I. Low Frequency Array observations of the 3C196 field

Author: Vishambhar Pandey, Abhik Ghosh, Emma Chapman, S. van der Tol, Saleem Zaroubi, Hannes Jensen, Harish Vedantham, Rajat M. Thomas, Ilian T. Iliev, A. G. de Bruyn, Vibor Jelić, O. Martinez-Rubi, K. M. B. Asad, F. B. Abdalla, Luitje Koopmans, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, A. R. Offringa, Geraint Harker, Maaijke Mevius, Michiel A. Brentjens, Elizabeth Fernandez, Joop Schaye, B. Ciardi, A. H. Patil, S. Bus, ITA, GBR, FRA, DEU, NLD, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], UMR Peuplement Végétaux et Bioagresseurs en Milieu Tropical (UMR PVBMT - INRA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ghent], Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), University College of London [London] (UCL), Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard University [Cambridge]-Smithsonian Institution, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Howard Hugues Medical Institute, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London], Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Plovdiv University 'Paisii Hilendarski, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Group, University of Oxford [Oxford], Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Peuplements végétaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical (UMR PVBMT), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de La Réunion (UR), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University (UGENT), Harvard University-Smithsonian Institution, Plovdiv University 'Paisii Hilendarski', University of Oxford, Universiteit Leiden, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, and Astronomy
Subjects: first stars, Field of view, polarization, instrumentation: polarimeters, intergalactic medium, cosmo-logy: observations, dark ages, reionization, Low frequency, 01 natural sciences, symbols.namesake, Optics, 0103 physical sciences, Stokes parameters, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS, QB, Leakage (electronics), Physics, [PHYS]Physics [physics], 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Spectral density, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Polarization (waves), Space and Planetary Science, symbols, business, [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]
Abstract: Detection of the 21-cm signal coming from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is challenging especially because, even after removing the foregrounds, the residual Stokes I maps contain leakage from polarized emission that can mimic the signal. Here, we discuss the instrumental polarization of Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and present realistic simulations of the leakages between Stokes parameters. From the LOFAR observations of polarized emission in the 3C196 field, we have quantified the level of polarization leakage caused by the nominal model beam of LOFAR, and compared it with the EoR signal using power spectrum analysis. We found that at 134-166 MHz, within the central 4° of the field the (Q, U) → I leakage power is lower than the EoR signal at k < 0.3 Mpc-1. The leakage was found to be localized around a Faraday depth of 0, and the rms of the leakage as a fraction of the rms of the polarized emission was shown to vary between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent, both of which could be utilized in the removal of leakage. Moreover, we could define an `EoR window' in terms of the polarization leakage in the cylindrical power spectrum above the point spread function (PSF)-induced wedge and below k∥ ̃ 0.5 Mpc-1, and the window extended up to k∥ ̃ 1 Mpc-1 at all k⊥ when 70 per cent of the leakage had been removed. These LOFAR results show that even a modest polarimetric calibration over a field of view of ≲ 4° in the future arrays like Square Kilometre Array will ensure that the polarization leakage remains well below the expected EoR signal at the scales of 0.02-1 Mpc-1.
Published: 2015

4. Upper limits on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum from one night with LOFAR

Author: Joop Schaye, Koki Kakiichi, A. H. Patil, Ilian T. Iliev, Sarod Yatawatta, F. B. Abdalla, K. M. B. Asad, A. G. de Bruyn, Vishambhar Pandey, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Saleem Zaroubi, Stefan J. Wijnholds, Geraint Harker, A. R. Offringa, B. K. Gehlot, M. B. Silva, W. N. Brouw, M. Hatef, Maaijke Mevius, Harish Vedantham, Emma Chapman, Suman Majumdar, Vibor Jelić, Garrelt Mellema, Damir Vrbanec, Abhik Ghosh, Michiel A. Brentjens, B. Ciardi, and Astronomy
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), media_common.quotation_subject, first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Spectral line, QB0460, Celestial pole, 0103 physical sciences, 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences, dark ages, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), media_common, Physics, 0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural), reionization, Science & Technology, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Spectral density, QB0468, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Redshift, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, Physical Sciences, 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics, astro-ph.CO, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Noise (radio), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, astro-ph.IM
Abstract: We present the first limits on the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) 21-cm HI power spectra, in the redshift range $z=7.9-10.6$, using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) High-Band Antenna (HBA). In total 13\,h of data were used from observations centred on the North Celestial Pole (NCP). After subtraction of the sky model and the noise bias, we detect a non-zero $\Delta^2_{\rm I} = (56 \pm 13 {\rm mK})^2$ (1-$\sigma$) excess variance and a best 2-$\sigma$ upper limit of $\Delta^2_{\rm 21} < (79.6 {\rm mK})^2$ at $k=0.053$$h$cMpc$^{-1}$ in the range $z=$9.6-10.6. The excess variance decreases when optimizing the smoothness of the direction- and frequency-dependent gain calibration, and with increasing the completeness of the sky model. It is likely caused by (i) residual side-lobe noise on calibration baselines, (ii) leverage due to non-linear effects, (iii) noise and ionosphere-induced gain errors, or a combination thereof. Further analyses of the excess variance will be discussed in forthcoming publications., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ApJ
Published: 2017

5. The scale of the problem

Author: de Antonius Bruyn, Luitje Koopmans, J-L Starck, Jérôme Bobin, Saleem Zaroubi, Vibor Jelić, Filipe B. Abdalla, Michiel A. Brentjens, Geraint Harker, P. Labropoulos, Emma Chapman, and Astronomy
Subjects: 21 CENTIMETER FLUCTUATIONS, Scale (ratio), first stars, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Residual, 01 natural sciences, Blind signal separation, FOREGROUND REMOVAL, Wavelet, cosmology: theory, TOMOGRAPHY, 0103 physical sciences, dark ages, reionization, first stars, dark ages, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, BLIND SOURCE SEPARATION, Physics, methods: statistical, Pixel, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Noise (signal processing), Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, 21-CM EPOCH, SIMULATIONS, diffuse radiation, NEUTRAL HYDROGEN, Space and Planetary Science, reionization, HIGH-REDSHIFT, Algorithm, Smoothing, INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM
Abstract: The accurate and precise removal of 21-cm foregrounds from Epoch of Reionization (EoR) redshifted 21-cm emission data is essential if we are to gain insight into an unexplored cosmological era. We apply a non-parametric technique, Generalized Morphological Component Analysis (GMCA), to simulated Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)-EoR data and show that it has the ability to clean the foregrounds with high accuracy. We recover the 21-cm 1D, 2D and 3D power spectra with high accuracy across an impressive range of frequencies and scales. We show that GMCA preserves the 21-cm phase information, especially when the smallest spatial scale data is discarded. While it has been shown that LOFAR-EoR image recovery is theoretically possible using image smoothing, we add that wavelet decomposition is an efficient way of recovering 21-cm signal maps to the same or greater order of accuracy with more flexibility. By comparing the GMCA output residual maps (equal to the noise, 21-cm signal and any foreground fitting errors) with the 21-cm maps at one frequency and discarding the smaller wavelet scale information, we find a correlation coefficient of 0.689, compared to 0.588 for the equivalently smoothed image. Considering only the pixels in a central patch covering 50 per cent of the total map area, these coefficients improve to 0.905 and 0.605, respectively, and we conclude that wavelet decomposition is a significantly more powerful method to denoise reconstructed 21-cm maps than smoothing.
Published: 2013

6. Prospects for detecting the 21 cm forest from the diffuse intergalactic medium with LOFAR

Author: Vibor Jelić, Vishambhar Pandey, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, P. Labropoulos, L. Graziani, V. Veligatla, James S. Bolton, Saleem Zaroubi, Antonella Maselli, Joop Schaye, Rajat M. Thomas, Geraint Harker, Harish Vedantham, B. Ciardi, Michiel A. Brentjens, A. R. Offringa, S. Kazemi, Luitje Koopmans, de Antonius Bruyn, O. Martinez, Astronomy, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Ciardi, B., Labropoulos, P., Maselli, A., Thomas Rajat, M., Zaroubi, S., Graziani, L., Bolton, J. S., Bernardi, G., Brentjens, M., de Bruyn, A. G., Daiboo, S., Harker, G. J. A., Jelic, V., Kazemi, S., Koopmans, L. V. E., Martinez, O., Mellema, G., Offringa, A. R., Pandey, V. N., Schaye, J., Veligatla, V., Vedantham, H., and Yatawatta, S.
Subjects: radio continuum: general, FOREGROUNDS, Astrophysics, general [Radio lines], 01 natural sciences, Spectral line, reionization: first star [Dark ages], RADIATIVE-TRANSFER, Radiative transfer, ABSORPTION, Radio astronomy, dark ages, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Physics, general [Radio continuum], FLUCTUATIONS, CENTIMETER TOMOGRAPHY, reionization, intergalactic medium, radio lines: general, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, COSMIC REIONIZATION, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, radio astronomy, Dark ages: reionization: first stars, Radio telescope, Intergalactic medium, Radio continuum: general, Radio lines: general, LY-ALPHA, Settore FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica, 21-CM EMISSION, 0103 physical sciences, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Reionization, EPOCH, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Astronomy and Astrophysic, Redshift, 13. Climate action, Space and Planetary Science, Hydrogen line, HIGH-REDSHIFT
Abstract: We discuss the feasibility of the detection of the 21cm forest in the diffuse IGM with the radio telescope LOFAR. The optical depth to the 21cm line has been derived using simulations of reionization which include detailed radiative transfer of ionizing photons. We find that the spectra from reionization models with similar total comoving hydrogen ionizing emissivity but different frequency distribution look remarkably similar. Thus, unless the reionization histories are very different from each other (e.g. a predominance of UV vs. x-ray heating) we do not expect to distinguish them by means of observations of the 21cm forest. Because the presence of a strong x-ray background would make the detection of 21cm line absorption impossible, the lack of absorption could be used as a probe of the presence/intensity of the x-ray background and the thermal history of the universe. Along a random line of sight LOFAR could detect a global suppression of the spectrum from z>12, when the IGM is still mostly neutral and cold, in contrast with the more well-defined, albeit broad, absorption features visible at lower redshift. Sharp, strong absorption features associated with rare, high density pockets of gas could be detected also at z~7 along preferential lines of sight., 12 pages, 13 figures. MNRAS, in press
Published: 2013

7. Imaging neutral hydrogen on large scales during the Epoch of Reionization with LOFAR

Author: Michiel A. Brentjens, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, Harish Vedantham, Benedetta Ciardi, O. Martinez-Rubi, S. Kazemi, V. N. Pandey, Geraint Harker, Joop Schaye, P. Labropolous, de Antonius Bruyn, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, V. Veligatla, Léon V. E. Koopmans, A. R. Offringa, and Vibor Jelić
Subjects: Physics, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Field of view, Scale (descriptive set theory), Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, LOFAR, Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, 7. Clean energy, Degree (music), Redshift, Space and Planetary Science, 0103 physical sciences, Sensitivity (control systems), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Coherence (physics)
Abstract: The first generation of redshifted 21 cm detection experiments, carried out with arrays like LOFAR, MWA and GMRT, will have a very low signal-to-noise ratio per resolution element (\sim 0.2). In addition, whereas the variance of the cosmological signal decreases on scales larger than the typical size of ionization bubbles, the variance of the formidable galactic foregrounds increases, making it hard to disentangle the two on such large scales. The poor sensitivity on small scales on the one hand, and the foregrounds effect on large scales on the other hand, make direct imaging of the Epoch of Reionization of the Universe very difficult, and detection of the signal therefore is expected to be statistical.Despite these hurdles, in this paper we argue that for many reionization scenarios low resolution images could be obtained from the expected data. This is because at the later stages of the process one still finds very large pockets of neutral regions in the IGM, reflecting the clustering of the large-scale structure, which stays strong up to scales of \sim 120 comoving Mpc/h (\sim 1 degree). The coherence of the emission on those scales allows us to reach sufficient S/N (\sim 3) so as to obtain reionization 21 cm images. Such images will be extremely valuable for answering many cosmological questions but above all they will be a very powerful tool to test our control of the systematics in the data. The existence of this typical scale (\sim 120 comoving Mpc/h) also argues for designing future EoR experiments, e.g., with SKA, with a field of view of at least 4 degree.
Published: 2012

8. Foreground removal using<scp>fastica</scp>: a showcase of LOFAR-EoR

Author: Léon V. E. Koopmans, Saleem Zaroubi, Vibor Jelić, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Filipe B. Abdalla, Emma Chapman, Geraint Harker, Michiel A. Brentjens, and de Antonius Bruyn
Subjects: Physics, Fastica algorithm, Space and Planetary Science, business.industry, FastICA, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pattern recognition, LOFAR, Artificial intelligence, Astrophysics, business, Independent component analysis, Reionization
Abstract: We introduce a new implementation of the FastICA algorithm on simulated LOFAR EoR data with the aim of accurately removing the foregrounds and extracting the 21-cm reionization signal. We find that the method successfully removes the foregrounds with an average fitting error of 0.5 per cent and that the 2D and 3D power spectra are recovered across the frequency range. We find that for scales above several PSF scales the 21-cm variance is successfully recovered though there is evidence of noise leakage into the reconstructed foreground components. We find that this blind independent component analysis technique provides encouraging results without the danger of prior foreground assumptions.
Published: 2012

9. An MCMC approach to extracting the global 21-cm signal during the cosmic dawn from sky-averaged radio observations

Author: Geraint Harker, Jonathan R. Pritchard, Judd D. Bowman, and Jack O. Burns
Subjects: Physics, COSMIC cancer database, media_common.quotation_subject, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Markov chain Monte Carlo, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Concreteness, Lunar orbit, Signal, Galaxy, symbols.namesake, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, symbols, media_common
Abstract: Efforts are being made to observe the 21-cm signal from the 'cosmic dawn' using sky-averaged observations with individual radio dipoles. In this paper, we develop a model of the observations accounting for the 21-cm signal, foregrounds, and several major instrumental effects. Given this model, we apply Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to demonstrate the ability of these instruments to separate the 21-cm signal from foregrounds and quantify their ability to constrain properties of the first galaxies. For concreteness, we investigate observations between 40 and 120 MHz with the proposed DARE mission in lunar orbit, showing its potential for science return.
Published: 2011

10. Constraints on σ8 from galaxy clustering in N-body simulations and semi-analytic models

Author: Adrian Jenkins, Geraint Harker, and Shaun Cole
Subjects: Physics, Sigma, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Correlation function (astronomy), Galaxy, Luminosity, Space and Planetary Science, Galaxy formation and evolution, Nuisance parameter, Cluster analysis, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, Luminosity function (astronomy)
Abstract: We generate mock galaxy catalogues for a grid of different cosmologies, using rescaled N-body simulations in tandem with a semi-analytic model run using consistent parameters. Because we predict the galaxy bias, rather than fitting it as a nuisance parameter, we obtain an almost pure constraint on sigma_8 by comparing the projected two-point correlation function we obtain to that from the SDSS. A systematic error arises because different semi-analytic modelling assumptions allow us to fit the r-band luminosity function equally well. Combining our estimate of the error from this source with the statistical error, we find sigma_8=0.97 +/- 0.06. We obtain consistent results if we use galaxy samples with a different magnitude threshold, or if we select galaxies by b_J-band rather than r-band luminosity and compare to data from the 2dFGRS. Our estimate for sigma_8 is higher than that obtained for other analyses of galaxy data alone, and we attempt to find the source of this difference. We note that in any case, galaxy clustering data provide a very stringent constraint on galaxy formation models.
Published: 2007

11. Linear polarization structures in LOFAR observations of the interstellar medium in the 3C 196 field

Author: Vibor Jelić, K. M. B. Asad, Luitje Koopmans, Harish Vedantham, Maaijke Mevius, A. R. Offringa, Sarod Yatawatta, M. Haverkorn, G. Mellema, Elizabeth Fernandez, I. T. Iliev, Geraint Harker, Hannes Jensen, A. G. de Bruyn, S. Kazemi, A. H. Patil, Emma Chapman, Vishambhar Pandey, B. Ciardi, S. Zaroubi, S. Bus, Michiel A. Brentjens, F. B. Abdalla, Abhik Ghosh, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, and Astronomy
Subjects: Physics, Linear polarization, Astronomy, Image (category theory), ISM: structure, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics, LOFAR, Galactic plane, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, ISM, general / ISM, magnetic fields / ISM, structure / radio continuum, ISM / techniques, interferometric / techniques, polarimetric, Interstellar medium, techniques: polarimetric, Local Bubble, radio continuum: ISM, Space and Planetary Science, techniques: interferometric, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), Brightness temperature, ISM: magnetic fields, Reionization, QB, ISM: general
Abstract: This study aims to characterize linear polarization structures in LOFAR observations of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the 3C196 field, one of the primary fields of the LOFAR-Epoch of Reionization key science project. We have used the high band antennas (HBA) of LOFAR to image this region and Rotation Measure (RM) synthesis to unravel the distribution of polarized structures in Faraday depth. The brightness temperature of the detected Galactic emission is $5-15~{\rm K}$ in polarized intensity and covers the range from -3 to +8 ${\rm rad~m^{-2}}$ in Faraday depth. The most interesting morphological feature is a strikingly straight filament at a Faraday depth of $+0.5~{\rm rad~m^{-2}}$ running from north to south, right through the centre of the field and parallel to the Galactic plane. There is also an interesting system of linear depolarization canals conspicuous in an image showing the peaks of Faraday spectra. We used the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at 350 MHz to image the same region. For the first time, we see some common morphology in the RM cubes made at 150 and 350~{\rm MHz}. There is no indication of diffuse emission in total intensity in the interferometric data, in line with results at higher frequencies and previous LOFAR observations. Based on our results, we determined physical parameters of the ISM and proposed a simple model that may explain the observed distribution of the intervening magneto-ionic medium. The mean line-of-sight magnetic field component, $B_\parallel$, is determined to be $0.3\pm0.1~{\rm \mu G}$ and its spatial variation across the 3C196 field is $0.1~{\rm \mu G}$. The filamentary structure is probably an ionized filament in the ISM, located somewhere within the Local Bubble. This filamentary structure shows an excess in thermal electron density ($n_e B_\parallel>6.2~{\rm cm^{-3}\mu G}$) compared to its surroundings., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, aceppted for publication in A&A
Published: 2015

12. Selection between foreground models for global 21-cm experiments

Author: Geraint Harker
Subjects: Physics, Polynomial, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Null model, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Bayesian inference, Signal, Space and Planetary Science, Line (geometry), Reionization, Nested sampling algorithm, Selection (genetic algorithm), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: The precise form of the foregrounds for sky-averaged measurements of the 21-cm line during and before the epoch of reionization is unknown. We suggest that the level of complexity in the foreground models used to fit global 21-cm data should be driven by the data, under a Bayesian model selection methodology. A first test of this approach is carried out by applying nested sampling to simplified models of global 21-cm data to compute the Bayesian evidence for the models. If the foregrounds are assumed to be polynomials of order n in log-log space, we can infer the necessity to use n=4 rather than n=3 with, 5 pages, 4 figures
Published: 2015

13. Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization Foreground Removal with the SKA

Author: Anna Bonaldi, Fred Dulwich, Vibor Jelić, Jean-Luc Starck, Gianni Bernardi, Geraint Harker, Jérôme Bobin, Emma Chapman, Mario G. Santos, Ben Mort, Filipe B. Abdalla, Bourke, Tyler L. et al., and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: Physics, Line-of-sight, COSMIC cancer database, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Bandwidth (signal processing), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy, FOS: Physical sciences, square kilometre array, epoch of reionization, foregrounds, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Power law, Redshift, Radio telescope, 0103 physical sciences, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, Parametric statistics
Abstract: The exceptional sensitivity of the SKA will allow observations of the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization (CD/EoR) in unprecedented detail, both spectrally and spatially. This wealth of information is buried under Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds, which must be removed accurately and precisely in order to reveal the cosmological signal. This problem has been addressed already for the previous generation of radio telescopes, but the application to SKA is different in many aspects. In this chapter we summarise the contributions to the field of foreground removal in the context of high redshift and high sensitivity 21-cm measurements. We use a state-of-the-art simulation of the SKA Phase 1 observations complete with cosmological signal, foregrounds and frequency-dependent instrumental effects to test both parametric and non-parametric foreground removal methods. We compare the recovered cosmological signal using several different statistics and explore one of the most exciting possibilities with the SKA --- imaging of the ionized bubbles. We find that with current methods it is possible to remove the foregrounds with great accuracy and to get impressive power spectra and images of the cosmological signal. The frequency-dependent PSF of the instrument complicates this recovery, so we resort to splitting the observation bandwidth into smaller segments, each of a common resolution. If the foregrounds are allowed a random variation from the smooth power law along the line of sight, methods exploiting the smoothness of foregrounds or a parametrization of their behaviour are challenged much more than non-parametric ones. However, we show that correction techniques can be implemented to restore the performances of parametric approaches, as long as the first-order approximation of a power law stands., Comment: Accepted for publication in the SKA Science Book 'Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array', to appear in 2015
Published: 2015
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14. Lunar occultation of the diffuse radio sky: LOFAR measurements between 35 and 80 MHz

Author: Vibor Jelić, Martin Bell, Gottfried Mann, Michael W. Wise, Gianni Bernardi, Wilfred Frieswijk, Jörg R. Hörandel, Garrelt Mellema, J. W. Broderick, J. Anderson, E. de Geus, George Heald, Y. Tang, K. M. B. Asad, M. J. Norden, Heino Falcke, Michiel A. Brentjens, Luitje Koopmans, V. I. Kondratiev, Arthur Corstanje, de Antonius Bruyn, A. Renting, Michel Tagger, Ben Stappers, Elizabeth Fernandez, F. de Gasperin, S. Kazemi, Emanuela Orrú, O. Martinez-Rubi, Rob Fender, A. Nelles, Oleg Smirnov, Stefan J. Wijnholds, P. Lambropoulos, A. R. Offringa, Annalisa Bonafede, Emma Chapman, Hannes Jensen, E. Juette, D. Engels, Sera Markoff, C. Toribio, Abhik Ghosh, F. B. Abdalla, Rebecca McFadden, Roberto Pizzo, Marco Iacobelli, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, Satyendra Thoudam, W. Reich, D. McKay-Bukowski, Dominik J. Schwarz, D. D. Mulcahy, A. H. Patil, Frank Breitling, Jochen Eislöffel, B. Ciardi, Maaijke Mevius, Mark J. Bentum, C. Tasse, V. Veligatla, A. G. Polatidis, Matthias Steinmetz, S. Bus, Vishambhar Pandey, M. Kuniyoshi, Philippe Zarka, S. ter Veen, Adam Deller, Chiara Ferrari, A. W. Gunst, Ashish Asgekar, Matthias Hoeft, Philip Best, A. Shulevski, John D. Swinbank, H. Munk, Marcus Brüggen, Geraint Harker, Jean-Mathias Grießmeier, Tim Hassall, Christian Vocks, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, John McKean, Harvey Butcher, M. Pandey-Pommier, S. Duscha, Harish Vedantham, Richard Fallows, M. A. Garrett, H. J. A. Röttgering, Olaf Wucknitz, G. Kuper, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], UMR Peuplement Végétaux et Bioagresseurs en Milieu Tropical (UMR PVBMT - INRA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), University College of London [London] (UCL), Laboratoire de Mécanique des Contacts et des Structures [Villeurbanne] (LaMCoS), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Mécanique multiphysique pour les matériaux et les procédés (MULTIMAP), Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies (LPNHE), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Howard Hugues Medical Institute, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Departamento de Geologıa, Universidad de Santiago de Chile [Santiago] (USACH), Advanced Computing and Microelectronics Unit [Kolkata] (ACMU), Indian Statistical Institute [Kolkata], Department of Physics and Astronomy [UCL London], Stockholm University, Department of process and energy, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Department of Physics, University of Crete [Heraklion] (UOC), Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Stockholm Observatory Department of Astronomy, Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ghent], Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Group, University of Oxford [Oxford], Plant Ind, Hort Unit, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Canberra] (CSIRO), Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geoscience, National Center for Atmospheric Research [Boulder] (NCAR), CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, University of Edinburgh, Jacobs University [Bremen], Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), University of Southampton, Radboud university [Nijmegen], Hamburger Sternwarte/Hamburg Observatory, Universität Hamburg (UHH), Metacohorts Consortium, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Département de Géologie, Université de Montréal [Montréal], Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay (USN), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum], Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek (AI PANNEKOEK), University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), University of Oulu, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester [Manchester], Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon), Interactions Son Musique Mouvement, Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son (STMS), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-IRCAM-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-IRCAM-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Rhodes University, Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH / Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Department of Astrophysics [Nijmegen], Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics (IMAPP), Radboud university [Nijmegen]-Radboud university [Nijmegen], Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AlfA), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Observatoire de Paris - Site de Paris (OP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), European Project: 258942,EC:FP7:ERC,ERC-2010-StG_20091028,FIRSTLIGHT(2010), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University (UGENT), University of Oxford, Radboud University [Nijmegen], Université de Montréal (UdeM), Universiteit Leiden, Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Radboud University [Nijmegen]-Radboud University [Nijmegen], Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-09-JCJC-0001-01), Peuplements végétaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical (UMR PVBMT), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de La Réunion (UR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO), École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), Vedantham, H.K., Koopmans, L.V.E., de Bruyn, A.G., Wijnholds, S.J., Brentjens, M., Abdalla, F.B., Asad, K.M.B., Bernardi, G., Bus, S., Chapman, E., Ciardi, B., Daiboo, S., Fernandez, E.R., Ghosh, A., Harker, G., Jelic, V., Jensen, H., Kazemi, S., Lambropoulos, P., Martinez-Rubi, O., Mellema, G., Mevius, M., Offringa, A.R., Pandey, V.N., Patil, A.H., Thomas, R.M., Veligatla, V., Yatawatta, S., Zaroubi, S., Anderson, J., Asgekar, A., Bell, M.E., Bentum, M.J., Best, P., Bonafede, A., Breitling, F., Broderick, J., Brüggen, M., Butcher, H.R., Corstanje, A., De Gasperin, F., De Geus, E., Deller, A., Duscha, S., Eislöffel, J., Engels, D., Falcke, H., Fallows, R.A., Fender, R., Ferrari, C., Frieswijk, W., Garrett, M.A., Grießmeier, J., Gunst, A.W., Hassall, T.E., Heald, G., Hoeft, M., Hörandel, J., Iacobelli, M., Juette, E., Kondratiev, V.I., Kuniyoshi, M., Kuper, G., Mann, G., Markoff, S., McFadden, R., McKay-Bukowski, D., McKean, J.P., Mulcahy, D.D., Munk, H., Nelles, A., Norden, M.J., Orru, E., Pandey-Pommier, M., Pizzo, R., Polatidis, A.G., Reich, W., Renting, A., Röttgering, H., Schwarz, D., Shulevski, A., Smirnov, O., Stappers, B.W., Steinmetz, M., Swinbank, J., Tagger, M., Tang, Y., Tasse, C., Ter Veen, S., Thoudam, S., Toribio, C., Vocks, C., Wise, M.W., Wucknitz, O., Zarka, P., Astronomy, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, ITA, GBR, FRA, DEU, NLD, and High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI)
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), media_common.quotation_subject, Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astronomy, first stars, observational [methods], FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, methods: observational, techniques: interferometric, Moon, dark ages, reionization, methods: observational – techniques: interferometric – Moon – cosmology: dark ages, Occultation, IR-98655, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), media_common, EWI-26150, Astroparticle physics, Physics, Epoch (reference date), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Astronomy and Astrophysic, Universe, interferometric [techniques], Dark ages, reionization, first star, Sky, Space and Planetary Science, [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics], Physics::Space Physics, ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING, Dark Ages, Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, METIS-314921, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: We present radio observations of the Moon between $35$ and $80$ MHz to demonstrate a novel technique of interferometrically measuring large-scale diffuse emission extending far beyond the primary beam (global signal) for the first time. In particular, we show that (i) the Moon appears as a negative-flux source at frequencies $35z>12$) and the Epoch of Reionization ($12>z>5$)., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table
Published: 2015

15. A marked correlation function analysis of halo formation times in the Millennium Simulation

Author: Adrian Jenkins, Carlos S. Frenk, Geraint Harker, John C. Helly, and Shaun Cole
Subjects: Physics, education.field_of_study, Structure formation, Astrophysics (astro-ph), Dark matter, Population, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Correlation function (astronomy), Galaxy, Redshift, Cosmology, Space and Planetary Science, Halo, education, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Abstract: We study the environmental dependence of the formation epoch of dark matter haloes in the Millennium Simulation: a ten billion particle N-body simulation of standard LambdaCDM cosmology. A sensitive test of this dependence - the marked correlation function - reveals highly significant evidence that haloes of a given mass form earlier in denser regions. We define a marked cross-correlation function, which helps quantify how this effect depends upon the choice of the halo population used to define the environment. The mean halo formation redshift as a function of the local overdensity in dark matter is also well determined, and we see an especially clear dependence for galaxy-sized haloes. This contradicts one of the basic predictions of the excursion set model of structure formation, even though we see that this theory predicts other features of the distribution of halo formation epochs rather well. It also invalidates an assumption usually employed in the popular halo, or HOD, models of galaxy clustering, namely that the distribution of halo properties is a function of halo mass but not of halo environment., 12 pages, 8 figures; some figures changed or amalgamated; error in value of M* corrected; references updated
Published: 2006

16. Constraining the epoch of reionization with the variance statistic: simulations of the LOFAR case

Author: K. M. B. Asad, Vibor Jelić, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, Saleem Zaroubi, A. H. Patil, Rajat M. Thomas, Vamsikrishna Veligatla, Vishhambhar N. Pandey, Sander Bus, Harish Vedantham, A. G. de Bruyn, Oscar Martinez, Maaijke Mevius, Joop Schaye, Geraint Harker, Abhik Ghosh, S. Kazemi, A. R. Offringa, Emma Chapman, Elizabeth Fernandez, P. Labropoulos, Michiel A. Brentjens, Hannes Jensen, Filipe B. Abdalla, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Benedetta Ciardi, Stefan J. Wijnholds, Astronomy, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: Physics, methods: statistical, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Estimation theory, techniques: interferometric, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Spectral density, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics, LOFAR, Signal, Redshift, Standard deviation, Space and Planetary Science, Reionization, Parametrization, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: Several experiments are underway to detect the cosmic redshifted 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Due to their very low signal-to-noise ratio, these observations aim for a statistical detection of the signal by measuring its power spectrum. We investigate the extraction of the variance of the signal as a first step towards detecting and constraining the global history of the EoR. Signal variance is the integral of the signal's power spectrum, and it is expected to be measured with a high significance. We demonstrate this through results from a simulation and parameter estimation pipeline developed for the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)-EoR experiment. We show that LOFAR should be able to detect the EoR in 600 hours of integration using the variance statistic. Additionally, the redshift ($z_r$) and duration ($\Delta z$) of reionization can be constrained assuming a parametrization. We use an EoR simulation of $z_r = 7.68$ and $\Delta z = 0.43$ to test the pipeline. We are able to detect the simulated signal with a significance of 4 standard deviations and extract the EoR parameters as $z_r = 7.72^{+0.37}_{-0.18}$ and $\Delta z = 0.53^{+0.12}_{-0.23}$ in 600 hours, assuming that systematic errors can be adequately controlled. We further show that the significance of detection and constraints on EoR parameters can be improved by measuring the cross-variance of the signal by cross-correlating consecutive redshift bins., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Published: 2014

17. Data analysis and foreground removal algorithms for 21-cm cosmology experiments

Author: Geraint Harker
Subjects: Physics, Interferometry, Line (geometry), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Redundancy (engineering), Field of view, Antenna (radio), Tracking (particle physics), Signal, Algorithm, Cosmology
Abstract: Cosmology experiments using the highly redshifted 21-cm line of hydrogen are taking a range of observational and instrumental approaches. The simplest, at first sight, are experiments aimed at measuring the sky-averaged (‘global’) signal using a single, well-characterized and precisely calibrated antenna, either on the ground or in space. Multiple-antenna and interferometric global signal experiments aim to trade off the increased complexity against improved resolution, and a better handle on e.g. the behaviour of the ionosphere and the instrumental beam. Studying the 21-cm fluctuations requires interferometry but still allows for many different approaches, e.g. using drift scans versus tracking individual fields, using redundant baselines versus aiming for minimal redundancy, or trading data volume against uv coverage and field of view.
Published: 2014

18. Initial LOFAR observations of epoch of reionization windows. II. Diffuse polarized emission in the ELAIS-N1 field

Author: F. de Gasperin, A. Horneffer, Jochen Eislöffel, M. A. Garrett, Geraint Harker, Michael Kramer, A. Nelles, J. van Leeuwen, Maaijke Mevius, Wilfred Frieswijk, Y. Tang, Anna M. M. Scaife, S. ter Veen, J. P. Hamaker, V. Veligatla, Marijke Haverkorn, G. Mann, A. W. Gunst, Chiara Ferrari, Rob Fender, D. Engels, Philip Best, Harish Vedantham, A. R. Offringa, John Conway, M. Iacobelli, M. Serylak, E. Juette, Hannes Jensen, James M. Anderson, C. Vocks, Annalisa Bonafede, Heino Falcke, Vibor Jelić, R. J. Dettmar, John McKean, Matthias Hoeft, A. H. Patil, J. W. Broderick, Saleem Zaroubi, P. Maat, Tim Hassall, Harvey Butcher, Aris Karastergiou, H. J. A. Röttgering, Rajat M. Thomas, M. J. Norden, V. I. Kondratiev, Olaf Wucknitz, M. Pandey-Pommier, H. Paas, Gianni Bernardi, Jörg R. Hörandel, Mark J. Bentum, Antonia Rowlinson, Michel Tagger, Garrelt Mellema, H. Munk, C. Tasse, O. Martinez-Rubi, W. Reich, J. D. Bregman, S. Kazemi, Abhik Ghosh, George Heald, Oleg Smirnov, Elizabeth Fernandez, S. Duscha, Dominik J. Schwarz, A. G. Polatidis, I. M. Avruch, Michiel A. Brentjens, W. N. Brouw, Roberto Pizzo, P. Labropoulos, Marcus Brüggen, Ralph A. M. J. Wijers, G. Pietka, Gerard H. Kuper, K. M. B. Asad, Martin Bell, Satyendra Thoudam, Jean-Mathias Griessmeier, Richard Fallows, A. Alexov, Emma Chapman, Ron Beck, A. G. de Bruyn, Luitje Koopmans, Vishambhar Pandey, Adam Deller, C. Toribio, F. B. Abdalla, P. Zarka, Matthias Steinmetz, F. Breitling, B. Ciardi, Jason W. T. Hessels, S. Bus, M. Kuniyoshi, R. Vermeulen, Stefan J. Wijnholds, E. de Geus, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Daiboo, Adam Stewart, A. J. van der Horst, R. J. van Weeren, D. McKay-Bukowski, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), University College of London [London] (UCL), Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies (LPNHE (UMR_7585)), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, University of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia], SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), University of Southampton, University of Edinburgh, Jacobs University [Bremen], Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Radboud university [Nijmegen], Joseph Louis LAGRANGE (LAGRANGE), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay (USN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA), University of Manchester [Manchester], University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum], Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre (VUMC), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (VU), University of Oulu, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), School of Physics and Astronomy [Southampton], Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder] (LASP), University of Colorado [Boulder], Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics (IMAPP), Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek (AI PANNEKOEK), ANR-09-JCJC-0001,OPALES(2009), Jelić, V., De Bruyn, A.G., Mevius, M., Abdalla, F.B., Asad, K.M.B., Bernardi, G., Brentjens, M.A., Bus, S., Chapman, E., Ciardi, B., Daiboo, S., Fernandez, E.R., Ghosh, A., Harker, G., Jensen, H., Kazemi, S., Koopmans, L.V.E., Labropoulos, P., Martinez-Rubi, O., Mellema, G., Offringa, A.R., Pandey, V.N., Patil, A.H., Thomas, R.M., Vedantham, H.K., Veligatla, V., Yatawatta, S., Zaroubi, S., Alexov, A., Anderson, J., Avruch, I.M., Beck, R., Bell, M.E., Bentum, M.J., Best, P., Bonafede, A., Bregman, J., Breitling, F., Broderick, J., Brouw, W.N., Brüggen, M., Butcher, H.R., Conway, J.E., De Gasperin, F., De Geus, E., Deller, A., Dettmar, R.-J., Duscha, S., Eislöffel, J., Engels, D., Falcke, H., Fallows, R.A., Fender, R., Ferrari, C., Frieswijk, W., Garrett, M.A., Grießmeier, J., Gunst, A.W., Hamaker, J.P., Hassall, T.E., Haverkorn, M., Heald, G., Hessels, J.W.T., Hoeft, M., Hörandel, J., Horneffer, A., Van Der Horst, A., Iacobelli, M., Juette, E., Karastergiou, A., Kondratiev, V.I., Kramer, M., Kuniyoshi, M., Kuper, G., Van Leeuwen, J., Maat, P., Mann, G., McKay-Bukowski, D., McKean, J.P., Munk, H., Nelles, A., Norden, M.J., Paas, H., Pandey-Pommier, M., Pietka, G., Pizzo, R., Polatidis, A.G., Reich, W., Röttgering, H., Rowlinson, A., Scaife, A.M.M., Schwarz, D., Serylak, M., Smirnov, O., Steinmetz, M., Stewart, A., Tagger, M., Tang, Y., Tasse, C., Ter Veen, S., Thoudam, S., Toribio, C., Vermeulen, R., Vocks, C., Van Weeren, R.J., Wijers, R.A.M.J., Wijnholds, S.J., Wucknitz, O., Zarka, P., Astronomy, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Radboud University [Nijmegen], Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universiteit Leiden, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Observatoire de Paris - Site de Paris (OP), PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA (UMR_8109)), PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and ANR-09-JCJC-0001,OPALES,nOn-thermal Processes in gALaxy cluStErs(2009)
Subjects: Brightness, Astronomy, techniques, Astrophysics, Cosmology: observation, 01 natural sciences, EWI-25428, law.invention, law, polarimetric [techniques], dark ages, Faraday cage, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Physics, Line-of-sight, [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph], Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Polarization (waves), observations [cosmology], interferometric [techniques], radio continuum: ISM, techniques: interferometric, Brightness temperature, ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING, IR-93232, reionization, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, techniques: polarimetric, cosmology: observations, diffuse radiation, first stars, Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, FOS: Physical sciences, ISM [radio continuum], Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Radio telescope, 0103 physical sciences, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Reionization, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, METIS-309730, LOFAR, Astronomy and Astrophysic, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, [SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM], Dark ages, reionization, first star, Space and Planetary Science, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), polarimetric
Abstract: This study aims to characterise the polarized foreground emission in the ELAIS-N1 field and to address its possible implications for the extraction of the cosmological 21-cm signal from the Low-Frequency Array - Epoch of Reionization (LOFAR-EoR) data. We use the high band antennas of LOFAR to image this region and RM-synthesis to unravel structures of polarized emission at high Galactic latitudes. The brightness temperature of the detected Galactic emission is on average 4 K in polarized intensity and covers the range from -10 to +13rad m^-2 in Faraday depth. The total polarized intensity and polarization angle show a wide range of morphological features. We have also used the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at 350 MHz to image the same region. The LOFAR and WSRT images show a similar complex morphology, at comparable brightness levels, but their spatial correlation is very low. The fractional polarization at 150 MHz, expressed as a percentage of the total intensity, amounts to 1.5%. There is no indication of diffuse emission in total intensity in the interferometric data, in line with results at higher frequencies. The wide frequency range, good angular resolution and good sensitivity make LOFAR an exquisite instrument for studying Galactic polarized emission at a resolution of 1-2 rad m^-2 in Faraday depth. The different polarised patterns observed at 150 MHz and 350 MHz are consistent with different source distributions along the line of sight wring in a variety of Faraday thin regions of emission. The presence of polarised foregrounds is a serious complication for Epoch of Reionization experiments. To avoid the leakage of polarized emission into total intensity, which can depend on frequency, we need to calibrate the instrumental polarization across the field of view to a small fraction of 1%., 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&A
Published: 2014

19. Initial deep LOFAR observations of Epoch of Reionization windows: I. The North Celestial Pole

Author: M. A. Garrett, Vibor Jelić, Michel Tagger, B. Ciardi, Aris Karastergiou, Harish Vedantham, Marco Iacobelli, Michael W. Wise, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, F. Breitling, F. B. Abdalla, Panagiotis Labropoulos, H. Paas, R. J. van Weeren, Richard Fallows, Léon V. E. Koopmans, M. Kuniyoshi, Michiel A. Brentjens, W. N. Brouw, R. Nijboer, E. Juette, Emanuela Orru, Olaf Wucknitz, V. Veligatla, Gottfried Mann, Ben Stappers, John McKean, M. Mevius, A. G. Polatidis, J. M. Anderson, A. Alexov, Gerard H. Kuper, J. D. Mol, S. ter Veen, Annalisa Bonafede, R. Pizzo, A. W. Gunst, T. E. Hassall, M. Pandey-Pommier, Ph. Zarka, Joop Schaye, Geraint Harker, Michael Kramer, J. Sluman, P. Maat, Jason W. T. Hessels, M. J. Norden, H. J. A. Röttgering, A. R. Offringa, Philip Best, V. I. Kondratiev, Heino Falcke, V. N. Pandey, Chiara Ferrari, J. Noordam, S. Duscha, E. de Geus, John Conway, R. Vermeulen, Sarod Yatawatta, S. Kazemi, Matthias Hoeft, S. Daiboo, F. Batejat, Michael R. Bell, Wolfgang Reich, Saleem Zaroubi, J. M. Griessmeier, R. H. van de Brink, Rajat M. Thomas, Cyril Tasse, Y. Tang, J. W. Broderick, Emma Chapman, Mark J. Bentum, Stefan J. Wijnholds, J. van Leeuwen, Joel N. Bregman, H. Munk, Marcus Brüggen, F. de Gasperin, W. Frieswijk, I. M. Avruch, Oleg Smirnov, Matthias Steinmetz, Martin Bell, O. Martinez Rubi, de Antonius Bruyn, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], Department of process and energy, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard University [Cambridge]-Smithsonian Institution, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy [Boulder] (CASA), University of Colorado [Boulder], Stockholm Observatory Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Génétique Diversité et Ecophysiologie des Céréales (GDEC), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP), University of Edinburgh, Jacobs University [Bremen], Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Onsala Space Observatory, Dept. of Radio and Space Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology [Göteborg], Hamburger Sternwarte/Hamburg Observatory, Universität Hamburg (UHH), Medstar Research Institute, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), Radboud university [Nijmegen], Joseph Louis LAGRANGE (LAGRANGE), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum], Oxford Astrophysics, University of Oxford [Oxford], University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), Observatoire de Paris - Site de Meudon (OBSPM), Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Center for Information Technology CIT, Université de Groningen, Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Yatawatta, S., De Bruyn, A.G., Brentjens, M.A., Labropoulos, P., Pandey, V.N., Kazemi, S., Zaroubi, S., Koopmans, L.V.E., Offringa, A.R., Jelić, V., Martinez Rubi, O., Veligatla, V., Wijnholds, S.J., Brouw, W.N., Bernardi, G., Ciardi, B., Daiboo, S., Harker, G., Mellema, G., Schaye, J., Thomas, R., Vedantham, H., Chapman, E., Abdalla, F.B., Alexov, A., Anderson, J., Avruch, I.M., Batejat, F., Bell, M.E., Bell, M.R., Bentum, M., Best, P., Bonafede, A., Bregman, J., Breitling, F., Van De Brink, R.H., Broderick, J.W., Brüggen, M., Conway, J., De Gasperin, F., De Geus, E., Duscha, S., Falcke, H., Fallows, R.A., Ferrari, C., Frieswijk, W., Garrett, M.A., Griessmeier, J.M., Gunst, A.W., Hassall, T.E., Hessels, J.W.T., Hoeft, M., Iacobelli, M., Juette, E., Karastergiou, A., Kondratiev, V.I., Kramer, M., Kuniyoshi, M., Kuper, G., Van Leeuwen, J., Maat, P., Mann, G., McKean, J.P., Mevius, M., Mol, J.D., Munk, H., Nijboer, R., Noordam, J.E., Norden, M.J., Orru, E., Paas, H., Pandey-Pommier, M., Pizzo, R., Polatidis, A.G., Reich, W., Röttgering, H.J.A., Sluman, J., Smirnov, O., Stappers, B., Steinmetz, M., Tagger, M., Tang, Y., Tasse, C., Ter Veen, S., Vermeulen, R., Van Weeren, R.J., Wise, M., Wucknitz, O., Zarka, P., High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI), Harvard University-Smithsonian Institution, Universiteit Leiden, Radboud University [Nijmegen], Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and University of Oxford
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Astronomy, first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Instrumentation: interferometer, METIS-302720, Celestial pole, first stars -instrumentation: interferometers -techniques: interferometric -methods: data analysis, 0103 physical sciences, dark ages, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Physics, reionization, instrumentation: interferometers, techniques: interferometric, methods: data analysis, [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph], 010308 nuclear & particles physics, IR-89500, Instrumentation: interferometers – Techniques: interferometric – Cosmology: observations, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, EWI-24509, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Astronomy and Astrophysic, Redshift, Galaxy, diffuse radiation, Dark ages, reionization, first star, Orders of magnitude (time), Space and Planetary Science, Instrumentation: interferometers, Techniques: interferometric, ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING, Ionosphere, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Noise (radio), Methods: data analysi, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: The aim of the LOFAR Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project is to detect the spectral fluctuations of the redshifted HI 21cm signal. This signal is weaker by several orders of magnitude than the astrophysical foreground signals and hence, in order to achieve this, very long integrations, accurate calibration for stations and ionosphere and reliable foreground removal are essential. One of the prospective observing windows for the LOFAR EoR project will be centered at the North Celestial Pole (NCP). We present results from observations of the NCP window using the LOFAR highband antenna (HBA) array in the frequency range 115 MHz to 163 MHz. The data were obtained in April 2011 during the commissioning phase of LOFAR. We used baselines up to about 30 km. With about 3 nights, of 6 hours each, effective integration we have achieved a noise level of about 100 microJy/PSF in the NCP window. Close to the NCP, the noise level increases to about 180 microJy/PSF, mainly due to additional contamination from unsubtracted nearby sources. We estimate that in our best night, we have reached a noise level only a factor of 1.4 above the thermal limit set by the noise from our Galaxy and the receivers. Our continuum images are several times deeper than have been achieved previously using the WSRT and GMRT arrays. We derive an analytical explanation for the excess noise that we believe to be mainly due to sources at large angular separation from the NCP., 19 pages, 24 figures. Draft version with low resolution images. Accepted on 08/01/2013 Astronomy & Astrophysics. Abstract abridged. Version with high resolution images: http://www.astro.rug.nl/~yatawatta/ncp_eor.pdf
Published: 2013

20. The brightness and spatial distributions of terrestrial radio sources

Author: W. N. Brouw, D. A. Rafferty, Oleg Smirnov, John McKean, Harvey Butcher, M. A. Garrett, M. Pandey-Pommier, Geraint Harker, Stefan J. Wijnholds, H. J. A. Röttgering, Marco Iacobelli, Jean-Mathias Grießmeier, Ashish Asgekar, Michael R. Bell, R. J. van Weeren, Abhik Ghosh, S. Duscha, Olaf Wucknitz, Christian Vocks, G. Kuper, Saleem Zaroubi, W. Reich, Frank Breitling, P. Maat, M. J. Norden, Ilian T. Iliev, I. M. Avruch, B. Ciardi, C. Tasse, Rene C. Vermeulen, Giulia Macario, Wilfred Frieswijk, V. I. Kondratiev, Chiara Ferrari, Rainer Beck, Laura Birzan, Y. Tang, Anna M. M. Scaife, Charlotte Sobey, S. ter Veen, A. Horneffer, M. Kuniyoshi, Emanuela Orrú, A. Alexov, Jochen Eislöffel, H. Paas, Luitje Koopmans, M. de Vos, E. Juette, Wouter Klijn, Michel Tagger, H. Meulman, A. G. Polatidis, F. B. Abdalla, J. van Leeuwen, J. Sluman, F. de Gasperin, A. R. Offringa, Roberto Pizzo, Richard Fallows, A. G. de Bruyn, Tim Hassall, R. van Nieuwpoort, Martin Bell, Mark J. Bentum, C. Toribio, J. W. Broderick, E. de Geus, M. Loose, Philippe Zarka, Philip Best, Marcus Brüggen, Gottfried Mann, J. M. Anderson, Aris Karastergiou, Michael W. Wise, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics [Canberra] (RSAA), Australian National University (ANU), Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy ( ASTRON ), University College of London [London] (UCL), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, University of Sussex, Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy [Boulder] (CASA), University of Colorado [Boulder], AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm University, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard University [Cambridge]-Smithsonian Institution, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci), Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), University of Edinburgh, Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), School of Physics and Astronomy [Southampton], University of Southampton, Universität Hamburg (UHH), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Joseph Louis LAGRANGE (LAGRANGE), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum], Oxford Astrophysics, University of Oxford [Oxford], University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), Center for Information Technology CIT, Université de Groningen, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), Department of Physics-Electronics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics (IMAPP), Radboud university [Nijmegen], Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek (AI PANNEKOEK), Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AlfA), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Harvard University-Smithsonian Institution, Universiteit Leiden, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Oxford, École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Radboud University [Nijmegen], Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École normale supérieure - Lyon (ENS Lyon), Rhodes University, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Astronomy, and High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI)
Subjects: Brightness, IR-89516, Astronomy, radio continuum: general, 02 engineering and technology, Astrophysics, PROPAGATION, Interference (wave propagation), 01 natural sciences, Cosmology, 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, EWI-24493, dark ages, instrumentation: interferometers, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Physics, INTERFERENCE MITIGATION, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, ASTRONOMY, Physics - Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, techniques: interferometric, Dark Ages, ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING, reionization, methods: observational, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, atmospheric effects, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph], first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, reionisation, 0103 physical sciences, dark ages, reionization, first stars, Visibility, Reionization, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), EPOCH, [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph], atmospheric effects – instrumentation: interferometers – methods: observational – techniques: interferometric – radio continuum: general – dark ages, 020206 networking & telecommunications, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Redshift, METIS-302710, Space and Planetary Science, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph), TELESCOPES
Abstract: Faint undetected sources of radio-frequency interference (RFI) might become visible in long radio observations when they are consistently present over time. Thereby, they might obstruct the detection of the weak astronomical signals of interest. This issue is especially important for Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) projects that try to detect the faint redshifted HI signals from the time of the earliest structures in the Universe. We explore the RFI situation at 30-163 MHz by studying brightness histograms of visibility data observed with LOFAR, similar to radio-source-count analyses that are used in cosmology. An empirical RFI distribution model is derived that allows the simulation of RFI in radio observations. The brightness histograms show an RFI distribution that follows a power-law distribution with an estimated exponent around -1.5. With several assumptions, this can be explained with a uniform distribution of terrestrial radio sources whose radiation follows existing propagation models. Extrapolation of the power law implies that the current LOFAR EoR observations should be severely RFI limited if the strength of RFI sources remains strong after time integration. This is in contrast with actual observations, which almost reach the thermal noise and are thought not to be limited by RFI. Therefore, we conclude that it is unlikely that there are undetected RFI sources that will become visible in long observations. Consequently, there is no indication that RFI will prevent an EoR detection with LOFAR., Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Published: 2013

21. Interpreting the Global 21-cm Signal from High Redshifts. I. Model Independent Constraints

Author: Jordan Mirocha, Jack O. Burns, and Geraint Harker
Subjects: Physics, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Signal, Redshift, Stars, Space and Planetary Science, Ionization, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), Reionization, Intensity (heat transfer), Realization (probability), Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: The sky-averaged (global) 21-cm signal is a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium (IGM) prior to the completion of reionization. However, it has so far been unclear that even in the best case scenario, in which the signal is accurately extracted from the foregrounds, that it will provide more than crude estimates of when the Universe's first stars and black holes form. In contrast to previous work, which has focused on predicting the 21-cm signatures of the first luminous objects, we investigate an arbitrary realization of the signal, and attempt to translate its features to the physical properties of the IGM. Within a simplified global framework, the 21-cm signal yields quantitative constraints on the Lyman-alpha background intensity, net heat deposition, ionized fraction, and their time derivatives, without invoking models for the astrophysical sources themselves. The 21-cm absorption signal is most easily interpreted, setting strong limits on the heating rate density of the Universe with a measurement of its redshift alone, independent of the ionization history or details of the Lyman-alpha background evolution. In a companion paper we extend these results, focusing on the confidence with which one can infer source emissivities from IGM properties., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Published: 2013
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22. Probing reionization with LOFAR using 21-cm redshift space distortions

Author: Sarod Yatawatta, Michiel A. Brentjens, Paul R. Shapiro, Geraint Harker, Yi Mao, S. Kazemi, Saleem Zaroubi, Kanan K. Datta, Rajat M. Thomas, de Antonius Bruyn, Luitje Koopmans, B. Ciardi, Filipe B. Abdalla, Emma Chapman, Vibor Jelić, Vishambhar Pandey, Hannes Jensen, Gianni Bernardi, Ilian T. Iliev, Garrelt Mellema, Harish Vedantham, Joop Schaye, O. Martinez, A. R. Offringa, V. Veligatla, P. Labropoulos, Mario G. Santos, Astronomy, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: 21 CENTIMETER FLUCTUATIONS, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), CM TOMOGRAPHY, POWER SPECTRUM, Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, first stars, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, FOREGROUND REMOVAL, methods: numerical, Redshift-space distortions, Celestial pole, instrumentation: interferometers, dark ages, reionization, 0103 physical sciences, STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, dark ages, reionization, first stars, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, BLIND SOURCE SEPARATION, Line (formation), Physics, EPOCH, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Epoch (reference date), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Redshift, NEUTRAL HYDROGEN, Space and Planetary Science, NORTH CELESTIAL POLE, Dark Ages, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, COSMIC REIONIZATION
Abstract: One of the most promising ways to study the epoch of reionization (EoR) is through radio observations of the redshifted 21-cm line emission from neutral hydrogen. These observations are complicated by the fact that the mapping of redshifts to line-of-sight positions is distorted by the peculiar velocities of the gas. Such distortions can be a source of error if they are not properly understood, but they also encode information about cosmology and astrophysics. We study the effects of redshift space distortions on the power spectrum of 21-cm radiation from the EoR using large scale $N$-body and radiative transfer simulations. We quantify the anisotropy introduced in the 21-cm power spectrum by redshift space distortions and show how it evolves as reionization progresses and how it relates to the underlying physics. We go on to study the effects of redshift space distortions on LOFAR observations, taking instrument noise and foreground subtraction into account. We find that LOFAR should be able to directly observe the power spectrum anisotropy due to redshift space distortions at spatial scales around $k \sim 0.1$ Mpc$^{-1}$ after $\gtrsim$ 1000 hours of integration time. At larger scales, sample errors become a limiting factor, while at smaller scales detector noise and foregrounds make the extraction of the signal problematic. Finally, we show how the astrophysical information contained in the evolution of the anisotropy of the 21-cm power spectrum can be extracted from LOFAR observations, and how it can be used to distinguish between different reionization scenarios., Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Published: 2013

23. The LOFAR radio environment

Author: R.-J. Dettmar, Steve Rawlings, Vibor Jelić, Benedetta Ciardi, Ben Stappers, Aris Karastergiou, Y. Tang, R. Pizzo, V. N. Pandey, A. Alexov, Michael W. Wise, Gianni Bernardi, J. Eisloeffel, J. Sluman, W. A. van Cappellen, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Garrelt Mellema, A. Schoenmakers, M. Mevius, John Conway, P. Maat, M. P. van Haarlem, Rainer Beck, G. van Diepen, M. J. Norden, Heino Falcke, A. W. Gunst, Sarod Yatawatta, R. Nijboer, V. Veligatla, Joop Schaye, J. M. Anderson, D. A. Rafferty, S. Daiboo, M. Kuniyoshi, Michael R. Bell, A. G. Polatidis, A. van Duin, H. Paas, Harish Vedantham, A. G. de Bruyn, V. I. Kondratiev, H. Meulman, A. van Ardenne, Harvey Butcher, J. D. Mol, Laura Birzan, M. Pandey, Michel Tagger, Michiel A. Brentjens, M. Gerbers, Jason W. T. Hessels, George Heald, Matthias Steinmetz, Rob Fender, Marcus Brüggen, Annalisa Bonafede, Gottfried Mann, Mark J. Bentum, Saleem Zaroubi, J. Noordam, Charlotte Sobey, John McKean, John D. Swinbank, Olaf Wucknitz, Gerard H. Kuper, Stefan J. Wijnholds, O. Martinez-Ruby, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Ph. Zarka, Philip Best, Ashish Asgekar, Y. Koopman, R. Vermeulen, A. R. Offringa, R. J. van Weeren, Matthias Hoeft, A. Horneffer, Huub Röttgering, M. Avruch, T. E. Hassall, Martin Bell, J. M. Griessmeier, Geraint Harker, M. de Vos, Ralph A. M. J. Wijers, Christian Vocks, W. Frieswijk, Wolfgang Reich, Oleg Smirnov, Cyril Tasse, J. W. Broderick, F. Breitling, S. Kazemi, J. van Leeuwen, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of process and energy, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), National Radio Astronomy Observatory [Charlottesville] (NRAO), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Leiden Observatory [Leiden], Universiteit Leiden [Leiden], Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Laboratoire de Chimie Physique Moléculaire (LCPM), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), University of Southampton, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard University [Cambridge]-Smithsonian Institution, University of Edinburgh, Jacobs University [Bremen], Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum], Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), Radboud university [Nijmegen], Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester [Manchester], University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Oxford Astrophysics, University of Oxford [Oxford], Center for Agricultural Research in Suriname CELOS and Department of Biology, Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname - Anton de Kom University of Suriname [Paramaribo] (UVS), Center for Information Technology CIT, Université de Groningen, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics [PennState], Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Penn State System-Penn State System, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek (AI PANNEKOEK), Department of Reproduction and Development, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AlfA), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Offringa, A.R., De Bruyn, A.G., Zaroubi, S., Van Diepen, G., Martinez-Ruby, O., Labropoulos, P., Brentjens, M.A., Ciardi, B., Daiboo, S., Harker, G., Jelić, V., Kazemi, S., Koopmans, L.V.E., Mellema, G., Pandey, V.N., Pizzo, R.F., Schaye, J., Vedantham, H., Veligatla, V., Wijnholds, S.J., Yatawatta, S., Zarka, P., Alexov, A., Anderson, J., Asgekar, A., Avruch, M., Beck, R., Bell, M., Bell, M.R., Bentum, M., Bernardi, G., Best, P., Birzan, L., Bonafede, A., Breitling, F., Broderick, J.W., Brüggen, M., Butcher, H., Conway, J., De Vos, M., Dettmar, R.J., Eisloeffel, J., Falcke, H., Fender, R., Frieswijk, W., Gerbers, M., Griessmeier, J.M., Gunst, A.W., Hassall, T.E., Heald, G., Hessels, J., Hoeft, M., Horneffer, A., Karastergiou, A., Kondratiev, V., Koopman, Y., Kuniyoshi, M., Kuper, G., Maat, P., Mann, G., McKean, J., Meulman, H., Mevius, M., Mol, J.D., Nijboer, R., Noordam, J., Norden, M., Paas, H., Pandey, M., Pizzo, R., Polatidis, A., Rafferty, D., Rawlings, S., Reich, W., Röttgering, H.J.A., Schoenmakers, A.P., Sluman, J., Smirnov, O., Sobey, C., Stappers, B., Steinmetz, M., Swinbank, J., Tagger, M., Tang, Y., Tasse, C., Van Ardenne, A., Van Cappellen, W., Van Duin, A.P., Van Haarlem, M., Van Leeuwen, J., Van Weeren, R.J., Vermeulen, R., Vocks, C., Wijers, R.A.M.J., Wise, M., Wucknitz, O., UMR Peuplement Végétaux et Bioagresseurs en Milieu Tropical (UMR PVBMT - INRA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Observatoire de Paris - Site de Paris (OP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Rhodes University, SKA South Africa, Ska South Africa, Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), university Rotterdam, Astronomy, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Peuplements végétaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical (UMR PVBMT), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de La Réunion (UR), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris] (CNES), and High Energy Astrophys. & Astropart. Phys (API, FNWI)
Subjects: Astronomy, instrumentation: interferometers, methods: data analysis, techniques: interferometric, telescopes, radio continuum: general, FOS: Physical sciences, RFI, 02 engineering and technology, Interference (wave propagation), 01 natural sciences, EWI-22636, Instrumentation: interferometer, Radio continuum: general, REMOVAL, Instrumentation: interferometers - Methods: data analysis - Techniques: interferometric - Telescopes - Radio continuum: general, 0103 physical sciences, Broadband, 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, Range (statistics), 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, IR-82457, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM), Telescope, FILTERING TECHNIQUES, Remote sensing, Significant difference, INTERFERENCE MITIGATION, Linearity, ASTRONOMY, 020206 networking & telecommunications, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Time resolution, LOFAR, Astronomy and Astrophysic, Space and Planetary Science, [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics], Techniques: interferometric, TELESCOPES, ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING, Environmental science, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, METIS-293223, Radio astronomy, Methods: data analysi
Abstract: Aims: This paper discusses the spectral occupancy for performing radio astronomy with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), with a focus on imaging observations. Methods: We have analysed the radio-frequency interference (RFI) situation in two 24-h surveys with Dutch LOFAR stations, covering 30-78 MHz with low-band antennas and 115-163 MHz with high-band antennas. This is a subset of the full frequency range of LOFAR. The surveys have been observed with a 0.76 kHz / 1 s resolution. Results: We measured the RFI occupancy in the low and high frequency sets to be 1.8% and 3.2% respectively. These values are found to be representative values for the LOFAR radio environment. Between day and night, there is no significant difference in the radio environment. We find that lowering the current observational time and frequency resolutions of LOFAR results in a slight loss of flagging accuracy. At LOFAR's nominal resolution of 0.76 kHz and 1 s, the false-positives rate is about 0.5%. This rate increases approximately linearly when decreasing the data frequency resolution. Conclusions: Currently, by using an automated RFI detection strategy, the LOFAR radio environment poses no perceivable problems for sensitive observing. It remains to be seen if this is still true for very deep observations that integrate over tens of nights, but the situation looks promising. Reasons for the low impact of RFI are the high spectral and time resolution of LOFAR; accurate detection methods; strong filters and high receiver linearity; and the proximity of the antennas to the ground. We discuss some strategies that can be used once low-level RFI starts to become apparent. It is important that the frequency range of LOFAR remains free of broadband interference, such as DAB stations and windmills., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 15 figures, 16 pages
Published: 2013

24. THE EFFECTS OF THE IONOSPHERE ON GROUND-BASED DETECTION OF THE GLOBAL 21 cm SIGNAL FROM THE COSMIC DAWN AND THE DARK AGES

Author: Abhirup Datta, Geraint Harker, T. Joseph W. Lazio, Jack O. Burns, Richard F. Bradley, and Attila Komjathy
Subjects: Physics, Spectral index, COSMIC cancer database, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 01 natural sciences, Physics::Geophysics, Space and Planetary Science, Physics::Space Physics, 0103 physical sciences, Riometer, Flicker noise, Radio frequency, Ionosphere, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, Noise (radio), 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Abstract: The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..Detection of the global H i 21 cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization is the key science driver for several ongoing ground-based and future ground-/space-based experiments. The crucial spectral features in the global 21 cm signal (turning points) occur at low radio frequencies . In addition to the human-generated radio frequency interference, Earth's ionosphere drastically corrupts low-frequency radio observations from the ground. In this paper, we examine the effects of time-varying ionospheric refraction, absorption, and thermal emission at these low radio frequencies and their combined effect on any ground-based global 21 cm experiment. It should be noted that this is the first study of the effect of a dynamic ionosphere on global 21 cm experiments. The fluctuations in the ionosphere are influenced by solar activity with flicker noise characteristics. The same characteristics are reflected in the ionospheric corruption to any radio signal passing through the ionosphere. As a result, any ground-based observations of the faint global 21 cm signal are corrupted by flicker noise (or noise, where f is the dynamical frequency) which scales as (where ν is the frequency of radio observation) in the presence of a bright galactic foreground (, where s is the radio spectral index). Hence, the calibration of the ionosphere for any such experiment is critical. Any attempt to calibrate the ionospheric effects will be subject to the inaccuracies in the current ionospheric measurements using Global Positioning System (GPS) ionospheric measurements, riometer measurements, ionospheric soundings, etc. Even considering an optimistic improvement in the accuracy of GPS-total electron content measurements, we conclude that Earth's ionosphere poses a significant challenge in the absolute detection of the global 21 cm signal below 100 MHz.
Published: 2016

25. Probing the First Stars and Black Holes in the Early Universe with the Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE)

Author: Stuart D. Bale, Joseph Lazio, A. Loeb, C. Carilli, Jack O. Burns, R. Bradley, Steve R. Furlanetto, Judd D. Bowman, Geraint Harker, and Jonathan R. Pritchard
Subjects: Atmospheric Science, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), media_common.quotation_subject, Dark matter, Aerospace Engineering, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Cosmology, 0103 physical sciences, Galaxy formation and evolution, 010303 astronomy & astrophysics, Reionization, media_common, Physics, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Galaxy, Dark Ages Radio Explorer, Universe, Geophysics, 13. Climate action, Space and Planetary Science, Dark Ages, General Earth and Planetary Sciences, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: A concept for a new space-based cosmology mission called the Dark Ages Radio Explore (DARE) is presented in this paper. DARE's science objectives include (1) When did the first stars form? (2) When did the first accreting black holes form? (3) When did Reionization begin? (4) What surprises does the end of the Dark Ages hold (e.g., Dark Matter decay)? DARE will use the highly-redshifted hyperfine 21-cm transition from neutral hydrogen to track the formation of the first luminous objects by their impact on the intergalactic medium during the end of the Dark Ages and during Cosmic Dawn (redshifts z=11-35). It will measure the sky-averaged spin temperature of neutral hydrogen at the unexplored epoch 80-420 million years after the Big Bang, providing the first evidence of the earliest stars and galaxies to illuminate the cosmos and testing our models of galaxy formation. DARE's approach is to measure the expected spectral features in the sky-averaged, redshifted 21-cm signal over a radio bandpass of 40-120 MHz. DARE orbits the Moon for a mission lifetime of 3 years and takes data above the lunar farside, the only location in the inner solar system proven to be free of human-generated radio frequency interference and any significant ionosphere. The science instrument is composed of a three-element radiometer, including electrically-short, tapered, bi-conical dipole antennas, a receiver, and a digital spectrometer. The smooth frequency response of the antennas and the differential spectral calibration approach using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique will be applied to detect the weak cosmic 21-cm signal in the presence of the intense solar system and Galactic foreground emissions., 33 pages, 12 figures; submitted to Advances in Space Research
Published: 2011

26. Power spectrum extraction for redshifted 21-cm Epoch of Reionization experiments: the LOFAR case

Author: A. G. de Bruyn, Vibor Jelić, Sarod Yatawatta, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Andreas H. Pawlik, Geraint Harker, Joop Schaye, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Michiel A. Brentjens, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, V. N. Pandey, Benedetta Ciardi, and A. R. Offringa
Subjects: Physics, media_common.quotation_subject, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Spectral density, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, LOFAR, Astrophysics, Noise (electronics), Spectral line, Redshift, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, Sample variance, Reionization, media_common
Abstract: One of the aims of the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project is to measure the power spectrum of variations in the intensity of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the EoR. The sensitivity with which this power spectrum can be estimated depends on the level of thermal noise and sample variance, and also on the systematic errors arising from the extraction process, in particular from the subtraction of foreground contamination. We model the extraction process using realistic simulations of the cosmological signal, the foregrounds and noise, and so estimate the sensitivity of the LOFAR EoR experiment to the redshifted 21-cm power spectrum. Detection of emission from the EoR should be possible within 360 hours of observation with a single station beam. Integrating for longer, and synthesizing multiple station beams within the primary (tile) beam, then enables us to extract progressively more accurate estimates of the power at a greater range of scales and redshifts. We discuss different observational strategies which compromise between depth of observation, sky coverage and frequency coverage. A plan in which lower frequencies receive a larger fraction of the time appears to be promising. We also study the nature of the bias which foreground fitting errors induce on the inferred power spectrum, and discuss how to reduce and correct for this bias. The angular and line-of-sight power spectra have different merits in this respect, and we suggest considering them separately in the analysis of LOFAR data.
Published: 2010

27. Foregrounds for observations of the cosmological 21 cm line: II. Westerbork observations of the fields around 3C196 and the North Celestial Pole

Author: Luitje Koopmans, P. Labropoulos, Geraint Harker, Joop Schaye, B. Ciardi, S. Zaroubi, A. R. Offringa, Vibor Jelić, Gianni Bernardi, A. G. de Bruyn, Rajat M. Thomas, Michiel A. Brentjens, Sarod Yatawatta, and Vishambhar Pandey
Subjects: Physics, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), media_common.quotation_subject, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Quasar, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Polarization (waves), Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Redshift, law.invention, Telescope, Celestial pole, Space and Planetary Science, law, Sky, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), Galaxy formation and evolution, Hydrogen line, polarization, diffuse radiation, cosmology: observations, ISM: general, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, media_common, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: In the coming years a new insight into galaxy formation and the thermal history of the Universe is expected to come from the detection of the highly redshifted cosmological 21 cm line. The cosmological 21 cm line signal is buried under Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds which are likely to be a few orders of magnitude brighter. Strategies and techniques for effective subtraction of these foreground sources require a detailed knowledge of their structure in both intensity and polarization on the relevant angular scales of 1-30 arcmin. We present results from observations conducted with the Westerbork telescope in the 140-160 MHz range with 2 arcmin resolution in two fields located at intermediate Galactic latitude, centred around the bright quasar 3C196 and the North Celestial Pole. They were observed with the purpose of characterizing the foreground properties in sky areas where actual observations of the cosmological 21 cm line could be carried out. The polarization data were analysed through the rotation measure synthesis technique. We have computed total intensity and polarization angular power spectra. Total intensity maps were carefully calibrated, reaching a high dynamic range, 150000:1 in the case of the 3C196 field. [abridged], Comment: 20 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. A version with full resolution figures is available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~bernardi/NCP_3C196/bernardi.pdf
Published: 2010
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28. Detection and extraction of signals from the epoch of reionization using higher-order one-point statistics

Author: Léon V. E. Koopmans, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Joop Schaye, Geraint Harker, Ilian T. Iliev, A. G. de Bruyn, Sarod Yatawatta, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, Vibor Jelić, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Andreas H. Pawlik, Benedetta Ciardi, Michiel A. Brentjens, V. N. Pandey, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: Frequency band, media_common.quotation_subject, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, HII-REGIONS, cosmology: theory, LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE, Statistics, DARK-MATTER, methods: statistical, diffuse radiation, radio lines: general, Reionization, media_common, Physics, Noise (signal processing), Astrophysics (astro-ph), SIMULATING COSMIC REIONIZATION, 1ST STARS, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 21-CM OBSERVATIONS, LOFAR, HYDROGEN, Universe, Redshift, 21 CENTIMETER TOMOGRAPHY, Orders of magnitude (time), Space and Planetary Science, Skewness, HIGH-REDSHIFT, INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM
Abstract: Detecting redshifted 21cm emission from neutral hydrogen in the early Universe promises to give direct constraints on the epoch of reionization (EoR). It will, though, be very challenging to extract the cosmological signal (CS) from foregrounds and noise which are orders of magnitude larger. Fortunately, the signal has some characteristics which differentiate it from the foregrounds and noise, and we suggest that using the correct statistics may tease out signatures of reionization. We generate mock datacubes simulating the output of the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) EoR experiment. These cubes combine realistic models for Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds and the noise with three different simulations of the CS. We fit out the foregrounds, which are smooth in the frequency direction, to produce residual images in each frequency band. We denoise these images and study the skewness of the one-point distribution in the images as a function of frequency. We find that, under sufficiently optimistic assumptions, we can recover the main features of the redshift evolution of the skewness in the 21cm signal. We argue that some of these features - such as a dip at the onset of reionization, followed by a rise towards its later stages - may be generic, and give us a promising route to a statistical detection of reionization., 11 pages, 10 figures. One figure added. Other small changes to match accepted version
Published: 2009

29. Foregrounds for observations of the cosmological 21 cm line. I. First Westerbork measurements of Galactic emission at 150 MHz in a low latitude field

Author: Michiel A. Brentjens, Sarod Yatawatta, Benedetta Ciardi, Vibor Jelić, A. R. Offringa, Gianni Bernardi, V. N. Pandey, Joop Schaye, de Antonius Bruyn, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Geraint Harker, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, and Astronomy
Subjects: Brightness, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), ANGULAR POWER SPECTRUM, media_common.quotation_subject, radio continuum: general, FOS: Physical sciences, polarization, cosmology: diffuse radiation, cosmology: observations, ISM: general, ISM: magnetic fields, POLARIZED EMISSION, 1.4 GHZ, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, NORTHERN SKY, law.invention, Telescope, MULTIFREQUENCY POLARIMETRY, law, Reionization, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, media_common, Physics, Line-of-sight, Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, MAGNETIC-FIELD, Spectral density, Astronomy and Astrophysics, RADIO-CONTINUUM SURVEY, Polarization (waves), Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, SYNCHROTRON EMISSION, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), PROBE WMAP OBSERVATIONS, Hydrogen line, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, COSMIC REIONIZATION
Abstract: We present the first results from a series of observations conducted with the Westerbork telescope in the 140--160 MHz range with a 2 arcmin resolution aimed at characterizing the properties of the foregrounds for epoch of reionization experiments. For the first time we have detected fluctuations in the Galactic diffuse emission on scales greater than 13 arcmin at 150 MHz, in the low Galactic latitude area known as Fan region. Those fluctuations have an $rms$ of 14 K. The total intensity power spectrum shows a power--law behaviour down to $\ell \sim 900$ with slope $\beta^I_\ell = -2.2 \pm 0.3$. The detection of diffuse emission at smaller angular scales is limited by residual point sources. We measured an $rms$ confusion noise of $\sim$3 mJy beam$^{-1}$. Diffuse polarized emission was also detected for the first time at this frequency. The polarized signal shows complex structure both spatially and along the line of sight. The polarization power spectrum shows a power--law behaviour down to $\ell \sim 2700$ with slope $\beta^P_\ell = -1.65 \pm 0.15$. The $rms$ of polarization fluctuations is 7.2 K on 4 arcmin scales. By extrapolating the measured spectrum of total intensity emission, we find a contamination on the cosmological signal of $\delta T= \sqrt{\ell (\ell+1) C^I_\ell / 2\pi} \sim 5.7$ K on 5 arcmin scales and a corresponding $rms$ value of $\sim$18.3 K at the same angular scale. The level of the polarization power spectrum is $\delta T \sim 3.3$ K on 5 arcmin scales. Given its exceptionally bright polarized signal, the Fan region is likely to represent an upper limit on the sky brightness at moderate and high Galactic latitude., Comment: Minor corrections made to match the final version printed on A&A. A version with high resolution figures is available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~bernardi/FAN/fan.pdf
Published: 2009

30. Non-parametric foreground subtraction for 21cm epoch of reionization experiments

Author: Michiel A. Brentjens, Geraint Harker, Vibor Jelić, Sarod Yatawatta, Gianni Bernardi, Garrelt Mellema, Vishambhar Pandey, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Panagiotis Labropoulos, Benedetta Ciardi, A. G. de Bruyn, Joop Schaye, A. R. Offringa, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: 21 CENTIMETER FLUCTUATIONS, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), MODELS, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Synthetic data, Smoothing spline, SIGNALS, cosmology: theory, TOMOGRAPHY, MAPS, methods: statistical, diffuse radiation, radio lines: general, Reionization, Parametric statistics, Physics, Nonparametric statistics, CONSTRAINTS, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, Redshift, SIMULATIONS, Space and Planetary Science, HIGH REDSHIFTS, EMISSION, Algorithm, Smoothing, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, COSMIC REIONIZATION
Abstract: An obstacle to the detection of redshifted 21cm emission from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is the presence of foregrounds which exceed the cosmological signal in intensity by orders of magnitude. We argue that in principle it would be better to fit the foregrounds non-parametrically - allowing the data to determine their shape - rather than selecting some functional form in advance and then fitting its parameters. Non-parametric fits often suffer from other problems, however. We discuss these before suggesting a non-parametric method, Wp smoothing, which seems to avoid some of them. After outlining the principles of Wp smoothing we describe an algorithm used to implement it. We then apply Wp smoothing to a synthetic data cube for the LOFAR EoR experiment. The performance of Wp smoothing, measured by the extent to which it is able to recover the variance of the cosmological signal and to which it avoids leakage of power from the foregrounds, is compared to that of a parametric fit, and to another non-parametric method (smoothing splines). We find that Wp smoothing is superior to smoothing splines for our application, and is competitive with parametric methods even though in the latter case we may choose the functional form of the fit with advance knowledge of the simulated foregrounds. Finally, we discuss how the quality of the fit is affected by the frequency resolution and range, by the characteristics of the cosmological signal and by edge effects., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures; lengthened and two figures added, to match version accepted by MNRAS
Published: 2009
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31. Foreground simulations for the LOFAR - Epoch of Reionization Experiment

Author: Panagiotis Labropoulos, Vishambhar Pandey, Michiel A. Brentjens, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Sarod Yatawatta, Ger de Bruyn, Benedetta Ciardi, Vibor Jelić, Gianni Bernardi, Joop Schaye, Saleem Zaroubi, Rajat M. Thomas, Geraint Harker, Astronomy, and Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Subjects: RADIO-SOURCES, radio lines : general, 21 CENTIMETER FLUCTUATIONS, radio continuum : general, media_common.quotation_subject, instrumentation: interferometers, cosmology: observation, cosmology: theory, diffuse radiation, radio continuum: general, radio lines: general, FOS: Physical sciences, Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, PRE-REIONIZATION, Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization, law.invention, GALAXY REDSHIFT SURVEY, law, cosmology : observation, instrumentation : interferometers, Faraday cage, Reionization, media_common, Polynomial regression, Physics, LINEAR-POLARIZATION, Line-of-sight, Astrophysics (astro-ph), Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, LOFAR, SPIN TEMPERATURE, Redshift, cosmology : theory, NEUTRAL HYDROGEN, GALACTIC EMISSION, Space and Planetary Science, Sky, PROBE WMAP OBSERVATIONS, INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM
Abstract: Future high redshift 21-cm experiments will suffer from a high degree of contamination, due both to astrophysical foregrounds and to non-astrophysical and instrumental effects. In order to reliably extract the cosmological signal from the observed data, it is essential to understand very well all data components and their influence on the extracted signal. Here we present simulated astrophysical foregrounds datacubes and discuss their possible statistical effects on the data. The foreground maps are produced assuming 5 deg x 5 deg windows that match those expected to be observed by the LOFAR Epoch-of-Reionization (EoR) key science project. We show that with the expected LOFAR-EoR sky and receiver noise levels, which amount to ~52 mK at 150 MHz after 300 hours of total observing time, a simple polynomial fit allows a statistical reconstruction of the signal. We also show that the polynomial fitting will work for maps with realistic yet idealised instrument response, i.e., a response that includes only a uniform uv coverage as a function of frequency and ignores many other uncertainties. Polarized galactic synchrotron maps that include internal polarization and a number of Faraday screens along the line of sight are also simulated. The importance of these stems from the fact that the LOFAR instrument, in common with all current interferometric EoR experiments has an instrumentally polarized response., Comment: 18 figures, 3 tables, accepted to be published in MNRAS
Published: 2008
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32. INTERPRETING THE GLOBAL 21-cm SIGNAL FROM HIGH REDSHIFTS. II. PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR MODELS OF GALAXY FORMATION

Author: Jack O. Burns, Jordan Mirocha, and Geraint Harker
Subjects: Physics, Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Star formation, Dark matter, FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics, Galaxy, Redshift, Dark Ages Radio Explorer, Luminosity, Space and Planetary Science, Galaxy formation and evolution, Reionization, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Abstract: Following our previous work, which related generic features in the sky-averaged (global) 21-cm signal to properties of the intergalactic medium, we now investigate the prospects for constraining a simple galaxy formation model with current and near-future experiments. Markov-Chain Monte Carlo fits to our synthetic dataset, which includes a realistic galactic foreground, a plausible model for the signal, and noise consistent with 100 hours of integration by an ideal instrument, suggest that a simple four-parameter model that links the production rate of Lyman-$\alpha$, Lyman-continuum, and X-ray photons to the growth rate of dark matter halos can be well-constrained (to $\sim 0.1$ dex in each dimension) so long as all three spectral features expected to occur between $40 \lesssim \nu / \mathrm{MHz} \lesssim 120$ are detected. Several important conclusions follow naturally from this basic numerical result, namely that measurements of the global 21-cm signal can in principle (i) identify the characteristic halo mass threshold for star formation at all redshifts $z \gtrsim 15$, (ii) extend $z \lesssim 4$ upper limits on the normalization of the X-ray luminosity star-formation rate ($L_X$-SFR) relation out to $z \sim 20$, and (iii) provide joint constraints on stellar spectra and the escape fraction of ionizing radiation at $z \sim 12$. Though our approach is general, the importance of a broad-band measurement renders our findings most relevant to the proposed Dark Ages Radio Explorer, which will have a clean view of the global 21-cm signal from $\sim 40-120$ MHz from its vantage point above the radio-quiet, ionosphere-free lunar far-side., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Published: 2015

33. Barium Sulphate Precipitation In Porous Rock Through Dispersive Mixing

Author: Geraint Harker and A.W. Woods
Subjects: Materials science, Chemical engineering, Precipitation (chemistry), Barium sulphate, Porosity, Mixing (physics)
Abstract: We describe the reaction which occurs when formation fluid containing Ba in solution is displaced by and mixes with injected water, containing sulphate, to form BaSO4. The model is based on the conservation of mass of both the barium and sulphate, assuming that each species is advected with the flow, and that at the interface between the two fluids, dispersive and diffusive mixing of the fluids leads to precipitation. The model equations are solved numerically, and a simple asymptotic model for the reaction, valid at long time, is developed. This identifies that in a linear geometry, the mass of solid which forms when the front has distance x from the source, decays at a rate proportional to 1/x½. The modelling approach may also be used to describe injection into a radial geometry, leading to an analogous asymptotic model for the decay of solid precipitate with distance from the injector well.
Published: 2003

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33 results on '"Geraint Harker"'

1. Probing ionospheric structures using the LOFAR radio telescope

2. Parametrizations of the 21-cm global signal and parameter estimation from single-dipole experiments

3. Polarization leakage in epoch of reionization windows - I. Low Frequency Array observations of the 3C196 field

4. Upper limits on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum from one night with LOFAR

5. The scale of the problem

6. Prospects for detecting the 21 cm forest from the diffuse intergalactic medium with LOFAR

7. Imaging neutral hydrogen on large scales during the Epoch of Reionization with LOFAR

8. Foreground removal using<scp>fastica</scp>: a showcase of LOFAR-EoR

9. An MCMC approach to extracting the global 21-cm signal during the cosmic dawn from sky-averaged radio observations

10. Constraints on σ8 from galaxy clustering in N-body simulations and semi-analytic models

11. Linear polarization structures in LOFAR observations of the interstellar medium in the 3C 196 field

12. Selection between foreground models for global 21-cm experiments

13. Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization Foreground Removal with the SKA

14. Lunar occultation of the diffuse radio sky: LOFAR measurements between 35 and 80 MHz

15. A marked correlation function analysis of halo formation times in the Millennium Simulation

16. Constraining the epoch of reionization with the variance statistic: simulations of the LOFAR case

17. Data analysis and foreground removal algorithms for 21-cm cosmology experiments

18. Initial LOFAR observations of epoch of reionization windows. II. Diffuse polarized emission in the ELAIS-N1 field

19. Initial deep LOFAR observations of Epoch of Reionization windows: I. The North Celestial Pole

20. The brightness and spatial distributions of terrestrial radio sources

21. Interpreting the Global 21-cm Signal from High Redshifts. I. Model Independent Constraints

22. Probing reionization with LOFAR using 21-cm redshift space distortions

23. The LOFAR radio environment

24. THE EFFECTS OF THE IONOSPHERE ON GROUND-BASED DETECTION OF THE GLOBAL 21 cm SIGNAL FROM THE COSMIC DAWN AND THE DARK AGES

25. Probing the First Stars and Black Holes in the Early Universe with the Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE)

26. Power spectrum extraction for redshifted 21-cm Epoch of Reionization experiments: the LOFAR case

27. Foregrounds for observations of the cosmological 21 cm line: II. Westerbork observations of the fields around 3C196 and the North Celestial Pole

28. Detection and extraction of signals from the epoch of reionization using higher-order one-point statistics

29. Foregrounds for observations of the cosmological 21 cm line. I. First Westerbork measurements of Galactic emission at 150 MHz in a low latitude field

30. Non-parametric foreground subtraction for 21cm epoch of reionization experiments

31. Foreground simulations for the LOFAR - Epoch of Reionization Experiment

32. INTERPRETING THE GLOBAL 21-cm SIGNAL FROM HIGH REDSHIFTS. II. PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR MODELS OF GALAXY FORMATION

33. Barium Sulphate Precipitation In Porous Rock Through Dispersive Mixing

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33 results on '"Geraint Harker"'

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