Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21334806p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #348.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.484
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
1
Scientific paper
The Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) is a low-frequency interferometer being developed to detect cosmic reionization via fluctuations in the brightness temperature of the 21cm hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen in the early intergalactic medium. Interfering with the direct detection of a global reionization signature are a myriad of astrophysical foregrounds, including polarized galactic synchrotron emission, continuum point-sources, and galactic/extra-galactic free-free emission. Suppression of these foregrounds will require extraordinary calibration and high dynamic-range imaging, as well as large numbers of antennas to achieve the necessary sensitivity in the region of the power spectrum where the reionization signal peaks relative to them.
Addressing the challenge of correlating large numbers of antennas, we have developed a flexible correlator architecture that scales to hundreds of antennas. This correlator is based on Field-Programmable Gate Array processors connected by a 10 Gb Ethernet switch, and programmed using a parameterized signal processing library. We demonstrate how this work has dramatically decreased correlator development time, and has enabled PAPER to grow as a series of deployments of increasing size.
Calibration and high dynamic-range imaging with low-frequency interferometers are exacerbated by wide bandwidths and large fields-of-view (FoV). To simplify the calibration process when an interferometer consistently has many strong sources simultaneously in its FoV, we present a fringe-rate/delay filtering technique to isolating source fluxes. This is implemented as part of Astronomical Interferometry in PYthon (AIPY), a new open-source software toolkit that facilitates exploration and algorithm development by modularizing data processing and visibility simulation. We present the application of this toolkit to various aspects of PAPER calibration.
Finally, we present the first all-sky map and point source catalog derived from 100-200MHz observations by 4, 8, and 16 antenna PAPER deployments in Green Bank, WV, and in western Australia.
PAPER Team
Parsons Aaron
No associations
LandOfFree
Developing A Low-frequency Interferometer For Detecting The Epoch Of Reionization: Correlation, Calibration, And High Dynamic-range Imaging With Paper does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Developing A Low-frequency Interferometer For Detecting The Epoch Of Reionization: Correlation, Calibration, And High Dynamic-range Imaging With Paper, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Developing A Low-frequency Interferometer For Detecting The Epoch Of Reionization: Correlation, Calibration, And High Dynamic-range Imaging With Paper will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1699984