The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder Array: System Functions and Basic Performance Analysis
Abstract
The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder is a radio interferometer array designed to test techniques for 21 cm intensity mapping in the post-reionization Universe, with the ultimate aim of mapping the large scale structure and measuring cosmological parameters such as the dark energy equation of state. Each of its three parallel cylinder reflectors is oriented in the north-south direction, and the array has a large field of view. As the Earth rotates, the northern sky is observed by drift scanning. The array is located in Hongliuxia, a radio-quiet site in Xinjiang, and saw its first light in September 2016. In this first data analysis paper for the Tianlai cylinder array, we discuss the sub-system qualification tests, and present basic system performance obtained from preliminary analysis of the commissioning observations during 2016-2018. We show typical interferometric visibility data, from which we derive the actual beam profile in the east-west direction and the frequency band-pass response. We describe also the calibration process to determine the complex gains for the array elements, either using bright astronomical point sources, or an artificial on site calibrator source, and discuss the instrument response stability, crucial for transit interferometry. Based on this analysis, we find a system temperature of about 90 K, and we also estimate the sensitivity of the array.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.05605,
title = {The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder Array: System Functions and Basic Performance Analysis},
author = {Jixia Li and Shifan Zuo and Fengquan Wu and Yougang Wang and Juyong Zhang and Shijie Sun and Yidong Xu and Zijie Yu and Reza Ansari and Yichao Li and Albert Stebbins and Peter Timbie and Yanping Cong and Jingchao Geng and Jie Hao and Qizhi Huang and Jianbin Li and Rui Li and Donghao Liu and Yingfeng Liu and Tao Liu and John P. Marriner and Chenhui Niu and Ue-Li Pen and Jeffery B. Peterson and Huli Shi and Lin Shu and Yafang Song and Haijun Tian and Guisong Wang and Qunxiong Wang and Rongli Wang and Weixia Wang and Kaifeng Yu and Jiao Zhang and Boqin Zhu and Jialu Zhu and Xuelei Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.05605},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
28 pages, 30 figures