The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization
Numerous studies have established the theoretical potential of the 21-cm bispectrum to boost our understanding of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We take a first look at the impact of foregrounds (FGs) and instrumental effects on the 21-cm bispectrum and our ability to measure it. Unlike the power...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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OXFORD UNIV PRESS
2021
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT180100321 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/91568 |
| _version_ | 1848765550164967424 |
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| author | Watkinson, C.A. Trott, Cathryn Hothi, I. |
| author_facet | Watkinson, C.A. Trott, Cathryn Hothi, I. |
| author_sort | Watkinson, C.A. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Numerous studies have established the theoretical potential of the 21-cm bispectrum to boost our understanding of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We take a first look at the impact of foregrounds (FGs) and instrumental effects on the 21-cm bispectrum and our ability to measure it. Unlike the power spectrum for which (in the absence of instrumental effects) there is a window clear of smooth-spectrum FGs in which it may be detectable, there is no such 'EoR window' for the bispectrum. For the triangle configurations and scales we consider, the EoR structures are completely swamped by those of the FGs, and the EoR + FG bispectrum is entirely dominated by that of the FGs. By applying a rectangular window function on the sky combined with a Blackman-Nuttall filter along the frequency axis, we find that spectral, or in our case scale, leakage (caused by FFTing non-periodic data) suppresses the FG contribution so that cross-terms of the EoR and FGs dominate. While difficult to interpret, these findings motivate future studies to investigate whether filtering can be used to extract information about the EoR from the 21-cm bispectrum. We also find that there is potential for instrumental effects to seriously corrupt the bispectrum. FG removal using GMCA (generalized morphological component analysis) is found to recover the EoR bispectrum to a reasonable level of accuracy for many configurations. Further studies are necessary to understand the error and/or bias associated with FG removal before the 21-cm bispectrum can be practically applied in analysis of future data. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:37:02Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-91568 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:37:02Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | OXFORD UNIV PRESS |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-915682023-05-11T03:35:54Z The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization Watkinson, C.A. Trott, Cathryn Hothi, I. Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics methods: statistical intergalactic medium dark ages reionization first stars cosmology: theory NEUTRAL HYDROGEN NON-GAUSSIANITY POWER SPECTRUM COSMIC DAWN SIGNAL EMISSION LIMITS astro-ph.CO astro-ph.CO Numerous studies have established the theoretical potential of the 21-cm bispectrum to boost our understanding of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). We take a first look at the impact of foregrounds (FGs) and instrumental effects on the 21-cm bispectrum and our ability to measure it. Unlike the power spectrum for which (in the absence of instrumental effects) there is a window clear of smooth-spectrum FGs in which it may be detectable, there is no such 'EoR window' for the bispectrum. For the triangle configurations and scales we consider, the EoR structures are completely swamped by those of the FGs, and the EoR + FG bispectrum is entirely dominated by that of the FGs. By applying a rectangular window function on the sky combined with a Blackman-Nuttall filter along the frequency axis, we find that spectral, or in our case scale, leakage (caused by FFTing non-periodic data) suppresses the FG contribution so that cross-terms of the EoR and FGs dominate. While difficult to interpret, these findings motivate future studies to investigate whether filtering can be used to extract information about the EoR from the 21-cm bispectrum. We also find that there is potential for instrumental effects to seriously corrupt the bispectrum. FG removal using GMCA (generalized morphological component analysis) is found to recover the EoR bispectrum to a reasonable level of accuracy for many configurations. Further studies are necessary to understand the error and/or bias associated with FG removal before the 21-cm bispectrum can be practically applied in analysis of future data. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/91568 10.1093/mnras/staa3677 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT180100321 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/CE170100013 OXFORD UNIV PRESS fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics methods: statistical intergalactic medium dark ages reionization first stars cosmology: theory NEUTRAL HYDROGEN NON-GAUSSIANITY POWER SPECTRUM COSMIC DAWN SIGNAL EMISSION LIMITS astro-ph.CO astro-ph.CO Watkinson, C.A. Trott, Cathryn Hothi, I. The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title | The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title_full | The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title_fullStr | The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title_full_unstemmed | The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title_short | The bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the Epoch of Reionization |
| title_sort | bispectrum and 21-cm foregrounds during the epoch of reionization |
| topic | Science & Technology Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics methods: statistical intergalactic medium dark ages reionization first stars cosmology: theory NEUTRAL HYDROGEN NON-GAUSSIANITY POWER SPECTRUM COSMIC DAWN SIGNAL EMISSION LIMITS astro-ph.CO astro-ph.CO |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT180100321 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT180100321 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/91568 |