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: | Journal Article |
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Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc.
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6968 |
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| author | Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan Udaya Shankar, N. Subrahmanyan, Ravi Arcus, Wayne Bernardi, Gianni Bowman, Judd Briggs, Frank Bunton, John Cappallo, Roger Corey, Brian deSouza, Ludi Emrich, David Gaensler, Brian Goeke, Robert Greenhill, Lincoln Hazelton, Bryna Herne, David Hewitt, Jacqueline Johnston-Hollitt, Melanie Kaplan, David Kasper, Justin Kincaid, Barton Koenig, Ronald Kratzenberg, Eric Lonsdale, Colin Lynch, Mervyn McWhirter, S. Russell Mitchell, Daniel Morales, Miguel Morgan, Edward Oberoi, Divya Ord, Stephen Pathikulangara, Joseph Remillard, Ronald Rogers, Alan Roshi, D. Anish Salah, Joseph Sault, Robert Srivani, K. Stevens, Jamie Thiagaraj, Prabu Tingay, Steven Wayth, Randall Waterson, Mark Webster, Rachel Whitney, Alan Williams, Andrew Williams, Christopher Wyithe, J. Stuart |
| author_facet | Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan Udaya Shankar, N. Subrahmanyan, Ravi Arcus, Wayne Bernardi, Gianni Bowman, Judd Briggs, Frank Bunton, John Cappallo, Roger Corey, Brian deSouza, Ludi Emrich, David Gaensler, Brian Goeke, Robert Greenhill, Lincoln Hazelton, Bryna Herne, David Hewitt, Jacqueline Johnston-Hollitt, Melanie Kaplan, David Kasper, Justin Kincaid, Barton Koenig, Ronald Kratzenberg, Eric Lonsdale, Colin Lynch, Mervyn McWhirter, S. Russell Mitchell, Daniel Morales, Miguel Morgan, Edward Oberoi, Divya Ord, Stephen Pathikulangara, Joseph Remillard, Ronald Rogers, Alan Roshi, D. Anish Salah, Joseph Sault, Robert Srivani, K. Stevens, Jamie Thiagaraj, Prabu Tingay, Steven Wayth, Randall Waterson, Mark Webster, Rachel Whitney, Alan Williams, Andrew Williams, Christopher Wyithe, J. Stuart |
| author_sort | Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| 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 <~ 0.8 Mpc−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 | 2025-11-14T06:14:04Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-6968 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:14:04Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc. |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-69682017-09-13T15:36:22Z A study of fundamental limitations to statistical detection of redshifted H I from the epoch of reionization Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan Udaya Shankar, N. Subrahmanyan, Ravi Arcus, Wayne Bernardi, Gianni Bowman, Judd Briggs, Frank Bunton, John Cappallo, Roger Corey, Brian deSouza, Ludi Emrich, David Gaensler, Brian Goeke, Robert Greenhill, Lincoln Hazelton, Bryna Herne, David Hewitt, Jacqueline Johnston-Hollitt, Melanie Kaplan, David Kasper, Justin Kincaid, Barton Koenig, Ronald Kratzenberg, Eric Lonsdale, Colin Lynch, Mervyn McWhirter, S. Russell Mitchell, Daniel Morales, Miguel Morgan, Edward Oberoi, Divya Ord, Stephen Pathikulangara, Joseph Remillard, Ronald Rogers, Alan Roshi, D. Anish Salah, Joseph Sault, Robert Srivani, K. Stevens, Jamie Thiagaraj, Prabu Tingay, Steven Wayth, Randall Waterson, Mark Webster, Rachel Whitney, Alan Williams, Andrew Williams, Christopher Wyithe, J. Stuart first stars radio lines: general reionization techniques: interferometric large-scale structure of universe radio continuum: galaxies methods: statistical dark ages 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 <~ 0.8 Mpc−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. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6968 10.1088/0004-637X/776/1/6 Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc. fulltext |
| spellingShingle | first stars radio lines: general reionization techniques: interferometric large-scale structure of universe radio continuum: galaxies methods: statistical dark ages Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan Udaya Shankar, N. Subrahmanyan, Ravi Arcus, Wayne Bernardi, Gianni Bowman, Judd Briggs, Frank Bunton, John Cappallo, Roger Corey, Brian deSouza, Ludi Emrich, David Gaensler, Brian Goeke, Robert Greenhill, Lincoln Hazelton, Bryna Herne, David Hewitt, Jacqueline Johnston-Hollitt, Melanie Kaplan, David Kasper, Justin Kincaid, Barton Koenig, Ronald Kratzenberg, Eric Lonsdale, Colin Lynch, Mervyn McWhirter, S. Russell Mitchell, Daniel Morales, Miguel Morgan, Edward Oberoi, Divya Ord, Stephen Pathikulangara, Joseph Remillard, Ronald Rogers, Alan Roshi, D. Anish Salah, Joseph Sault, Robert Srivani, K. Stevens, Jamie Thiagaraj, Prabu Tingay, Steven Wayth, Randall Waterson, Mark Webster, Rachel Whitney, Alan Williams, Andrew Williams, Christopher Wyithe, J. Stuart 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 |
| topic | first stars radio lines: general reionization techniques: interferometric large-scale structure of universe radio continuum: galaxies methods: statistical dark ages |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6968 |