Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)
Abstract
The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is a staged experiment to measure 21 cm emission from the primordial intergalactic medium (IGM) throughout cosmic reionization (), and to explore earlier epochs of our Cosmic Dawn (). During these epochs, early stars and black holes heated and ionized the IGM, introducing fluctuations in 21 cm emission. HERA is designed to characterize the evolution of the 21 cm power spectrum to constrain the timing and morphology of reionization, the properties of the first galaxies, the evolution of large-scale structure, and the early sources of heating. The full HERA instrument will be a 350-element interferometer in South Africa consisting of 14-m parabolic dishes observing from 50 to 250 MHz. Currently, 19 dishes have been deployed on site and the next 18 are under construction. HERA has been designated as an SKA Precursor instrument. In this paper, we summarize HERA's scientific context and provide forecasts for its key science results. After reviewing the current state of the art in foreground mitigation, we use the delay-spectrum technique to motivate high-level performance requirements for the HERA instrument. Next, we present the HERA instrument design, along with the subsystem specifications that ensure that HERA meets its performance requirements. Finally, we summarize the schedule and status of the project. We conclude by suggesting that, given the realities of foreground contamination, current-generation 21 cm instruments are approaching their sensitivity limits. HERA is designed to bring both the sensitivity and the precision to deliver its primary science on the basis of proven foreground filtering techniques, while developing new subtraction techniques to unlock new capabilities. The result will be a major step toward realizing the widely recognized scientific potential of 21 cm cosmology.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1606.07473,
title = {Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)},
author = {David R. DeBoer and Aaron R. Parsons and James E. Aguirre and Paul Alexander and Zaki S. Ali and Adam P. Beardsley and Gianni Bernardi and Judd D. Bowman and Richard F. Bradley and Chris L. Carilli and Carina Cheng and Eloy de Lera Acedo and Joshua S. Dillon and Aaron Ewall-Wice and Gcobisa Fadana and Nicolas Fagnoni and Randall Fritz and Steve R. Furlanetto and Brian Glendenning and Bradley Greig and Jasper Grobbelaar and Bryna J. Hazelton and Jacqueline N. Hewitt and Jack Hickish and Daniel C. Jacobs and Austin Julius and MacCalvin Kariseb and Saul A. Kohn and Telalo Lekalake and Adrian Liu and Anita Loots and David MacMahon and Lourence Malan and Cresshim Malgas and Matthys Maree and Nathan Mathison and Eunice Matsetela and Andrei Mesinger and Miguel F. Morales and Abraham R. Neben and Nipanjana Patra and Samantha Pieterse and Jonathan C. Pober and Nima Razavi-Ghods and Jon Ringuette and James Robnett and Kathryn Rosie and Raddwine Sell and Craig Smith and Angelo Syce and Max Tegmark and Nithyanandan Thyagarajan and Peter K. G. Williams and Haoxuan Zheng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.07473},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
26 pages, 24 figures, 2 tables