Mitigating Internal Instrument Coupling II: A Method Demonstration with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
Abstract
We present a study of internal reflection and cross coupling systematics in Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). In a companion paper, we outlined the mathematical formalism for such systematics and presented algorithms for modeling and removing them from the data. In this work, we apply these techniques to data from HERA's first observing season as a method demonstration. The data show evidence for systematics that, without removal, would hinder a detection of the 21 cm power spectrum for the targeted EoR line-of-sight modes in the range 0.2 < k_parallel < 0.5\ h^-1 Mpc. After systematic removal, we find we can recover these modes in the power spectrum down to the integrated noise-floor of a nightly observation, achieving a dynamic range in the EoR window of 10^-6 in power (mK^2 units) with respect to the bright galactic foreground signal. In the absence of other systematics and assuming the systematic suppression demonstrated here continues to lower noise levels, our results suggest that fully-integrated HERA Phase I may have the capacity to set competitive upper limits on the 21 cm power spectrum. For future observing seasons, HERA will have upgraded analog and digital hardware to better control these systematics in the field.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1909.11733,
title = {Mitigating Internal Instrument Coupling II: A Method Demonstration with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array},
author = {Nicholas S. Kern and Aaron R. Parsons and Joshua S. Dillon and Adam E. Lanman and Adrian Liu and Philip Bull and Aaron Ewall-Wice and Zara Abdurashidova and James E. Aguirre and Paul Alexander and Zaki S. Ali and Yanga Balfour and Adam P. Beardsley and Gianni Bernardi and Judd D. Bowman and Richard F. Bradley and Jacob Burba and Chris L. Carilli and Carina Cheng and David R. DeBoer and Matt Dexter and Eloy de Lera Acedo and Nicolas Fagnoni and Randall Fritz and Steve R. Furlanetto and Brian Glendenning and Deepthi Gorthi and Bradley Greig and Jasper Grobbelaar and Ziyaad Halday and Bryna J. Hazelton and Jacqueline N. Hewitt and Jack Hickish and Daniel C. Jacobs and Austin Julius and Joshua Kerrigan and Piyanat Kittiwisit and Saul A. Kohn and Matthew Kolopanis and Paul La Plante and Telalo Lekalake and David MacMahon and Lourence Malan and Cresshim Malgas and Matthys Maree and Zachary E. Martinot and Eunice Matsetela and Andrei Mesinger and Mathakane Molewa and Miguel F. Morales and Tshegofalang Mosiane and Steven G. Murray and Abraham R. Neben and Aaron R. Parsons and Nipanjana Patra and Samantha Pieterse and Jonathan C. Pober and Nima Razavi-Ghods and Jon Ringuette and James Robnett and Kathryn Rosie and Peter Sims and Craig Smith and Angelo Syce and Nithyanandan Thyagarajan and Peter K. G. Williams and Haoxuan Zheng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.11733},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Submitted to ApJ