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

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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

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

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number022002
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume102
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 15 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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