A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION
In this paper, we explore for the first time the relative magnitudes of three fundamental sources of uncertainty, namely, foreground contamination, thermal noise, and sample variance, in detecting the H I power spectrum from the epoch of reionization (EoR). We derive limits on the sensitivity of a F...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88461 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458 |
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| author | Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Goeke, Robert F. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, Joseph E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh |
| author2 | Haystack Observatory |
| author_facet | Haystack Observatory Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Goeke, Robert F. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, Joseph E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh |
| author_sort | Cappallo, Roger J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In this paper, we explore for the first time the relative magnitudes of three fundamental sources of uncertainty, namely, foreground contamination, thermal noise, and sample variance, in detecting the H I power spectrum from the epoch of reionization (EoR). We derive limits on the sensitivity of a Fourier synthesis telescope to detect EoR based on its array configuration and a statistical representation of images made by the instrument. We use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) configuration for our studies. Using a unified framework for estimating signal and noise components in the H I power spectrum, we derive an expression for and estimate the contamination from extragalactic point-like sources in three-dimensional k-space. Sensitivity for EoR H I power spectrum detection is estimated for different observing modes with MWA. With 1000 hr of observing on a single field using the 128 tile MWA, EoR detection is feasible (S/N >1 for k [< over ~] 0.8 Mpc[superscript –1]). Bandpass shaping and refinements to the EoR window are found to be effective in containing foreground contamination, which makes the instrument tolerant to imaging errors. We find that for a given observing time, observing many independent fields of view does not offer an advantage over a single field observation when thermal noise dominates over other uncertainties in the derived power spectrum. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:32:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/88461 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:32:24Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/884612022-09-28T08:24:58Z A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Goeke, Robert F. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, Joseph E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh Haystack Observatory MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Goeke, Robert F. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, Joseph E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh In this paper, we explore for the first time the relative magnitudes of three fundamental sources of uncertainty, namely, foreground contamination, thermal noise, and sample variance, in detecting the H I power spectrum from the epoch of reionization (EoR). We derive limits on the sensitivity of a Fourier synthesis telescope to detect EoR based on its array configuration and a statistical representation of images made by the instrument. We use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) configuration for our studies. Using a unified framework for estimating signal and noise components in the H I power spectrum, we derive an expression for and estimate the contamination from extragalactic point-like sources in three-dimensional k-space. Sensitivity for EoR H I power spectrum detection is estimated for different observing modes with MWA. With 1000 hr of observing on a single field using the 128 tile MWA, EoR detection is feasible (S/N >1 for k [< over ~] 0.8 Mpc[superscript –1]). Bandpass shaping and refinements to the EoR window are found to be effective in containing foreground contamination, which makes the instrument tolerant to imaging errors. We find that for a given observing time, observing many independent fields of view does not offer an advantage over a single field observation when thermal noise dominates over other uncertainties in the derived power spectrum. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0457585) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-0835713) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CAREER-0847753) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0908884) United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-0510247) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory MIT School of Science 2014-07-22T14:26:45Z 2014-07-22T14:26:45Z 2013-09 2012-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-637X 1538-4357 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88461 Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan, N. Udaya Shankar, Ravi Subrahmanyan, Wayne Arcus, Gianni Bernardi, Judd D. Bowman, Frank Briggs, et al. “A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION.” The Astrophysical Journal 776, no. 1 (October 10, 2013): 6. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/776/1/6 The Astrophysical Journal Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Cappallo, Roger J. Corey, Brian E. Goeke, Robert F. Hewitt, Jacqueline N. Kincaid, Barton B. Kratzenberg, Eric W. Lonsdale, Colin John McWhirter, Stephen R. Morgan, Edward H. Remillard, Ronald Alan Rogers, Alan E. E. Salah, Joseph E. Whitney, Alan R. Williams, Christopher Leigh A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title | A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title_full | A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title_fullStr | A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title_full_unstemmed | A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title_short | A STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS TO STATISTICAL DETECTION OF REDSHIFTED H I FROM THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION |
| title_sort | study of fundamental limitations to statistical detection of redshifted h i from the epoch of reionization |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88461 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4117-570X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-208X https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-7458 |
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