A Per-Baseline, Delay-Spectrum Technique for Accessing the 21cm Cosmic Reionization Signature

Details A Per-Baseline, Delay-Spectrum Technique for Accessing the 21cm Cosmic Reionization Signature A Per-Baseline, Delay-Spectrum Technique for Accessing the 21cm Cosmic Reionization Signature

2012-04-20

arxiv.org/abs/1204.4749v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

30 Pages, 10 figures, submitted to ApJ

Scientific paper

A critical challenge in measuring the power spectrum of 21cm emission from cosmic reionization is compensating for the frequency dependence of an interferometer's sampling pattern, which can cause smooth-spectrum foregrounds to appear unsmooth and degrade the separation between foregrounds and the target signal. In this paper, we present an approach to foreground removal that explicitly accounts for this frequency dependence. We apply the delay transformation introduced in Parsons & Backer (2009) to each baseline of an interferometer to concentrate smooth-spectrum foregrounds within the bounds of the maximum geometric delays physically realizable on that baseline. By focusing on delay-modes that correspond to image-domain regions beyond the horizon, we show that it is possible to avoid the bulk of smooth-spectrum foregrounds. We show that delay-modes that are uncorrupted by foregrounds also represent samples of the three-dimensional power spectrum, and can be used to constrain cosmic reionization. Because it uses only spectral smoothness to differentiate foregrounds from the targeted 21cm signature, this per-baseline analysis approach relies on spectrally- and spatially-smooth instrumental responses for foreground removal. For sufficient levels of instrumental smoothness relative to the brightness of interfering foregrounds, this technique substantially reduces the level of calibration previously thought necessary to detect 21cm reionization. As a result, this approach places fewer constraints on antenna configuration within an array, and in particular, facilitates the adoption of configurations that are optimized for power-spectrum sensitivity. Under these assumptions, we demonstrate the potential for the PAPER array to detect 21cm reionization at an amplitude of 10 mK^2 near k~0.2h Mpc^-1 with 128 dipoles in 7 months of observing.

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