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Diffuse radio recombination lines (RRLs) in the Galaxy are possible foregrounds for redshifted 21 cm experiments. We use EDGES drift scans centered at −26.°7 decl. to characterize diffuse RRLs across the southern sky. We find that RRLs averaged over the large antenna beam (72° × 110°) reach minimum amplitudes of R.A. = 2–6 hr. In this region, the Cαabsorption amplitude is 33 ± 11 mK (1σ) averaged over 50–87 MHz (27 ≳z≳ 15 for the 21 cm line) and increases strongly as frequency decreases. Cβand Hαlines are consistent with no detection with amplitudes of 13 ± 14 and 12 ± 10 mK (1σ), respectively. At 108–124.5 MHz (z≈ 11) in the same region, we find no evidence for carbon or hydrogen lines at the noise level of 3.4 mK (1σ). Conservatively assuming that observed lines come broadly from the diffuse interstellar medium, as opposed to a few compact regions, these amplitudes provide upper limits on the intrinsic diffuse lines. The observations support expectations that Galactic RRLs can be neglected as significant foregrounds for a large region of sky until redshifted 21 cm experiments, particularly those targeting cosmic dawn, move beyond the detection phase. We fit models of the spectral dependence of the lines averaged over the large beam of EDGES, which may contain multiple line sources with possible line blending, and find that including degrees of freedom for expected smooth, frequency-dependent deviations from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) is preferred over simple LTE assumptions for Cαand Hαlines. For Cαwe estimate departure coefficients 0.79 <b_nβ_n< 4.5 along the inner Galactic plane and 0 <b_nβ_n< 2.3 away from the inner Galactic plane.

 

We present an analysis of Epoch of Reionization (EoR) data from Phase II of the Murchison Widefield Array using the simpleds delay spectrum pipeline. Prior work analysed the same observations using the fhd/εppsilon imaging pipeline, and so the present analysis represents the first time that both principal types of 21 cm cosmology power spectrum estimation approaches have been applied to the same data set. Our limits on the 21 cm power spectrum amplitude span a range in k space of $|k| \lt 1 \, h_{100}\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ with a lowest measurement of Δ2(k) ≤ 4.58 × 103 mK2 at $k = 0.190\, h_{100}\, \rm {Mpc}^{-1}$ and z = 7.14. In order to achieve these limits, we need to mitigate a previously unidentified common mode systematic in the data set. If not accounted for, this systematic introduces an overall negative bias that can make foreground contaminated measurements appear as stringent, noise-limited constraints on the 21 cm signal amplitude. The identification of this systematic highlights the risk in modelling systematics as positive-definite contributions to the power spectrum and in ‘conservatively’ interpreting all measurements as upper limits.

 

Next-generation aperture arrays are expected to consist of hundreds to thousands of antenna elements with substantial digital signal processing to handle large operating bandwidths of a few tens to hundreds of MHz. Conventionally, FX correlators are used as the primary signal processing unit of the interferometer. These correlators have computational costs that scale as $\mathcal {O}(N^2)$ for large arrays. An alternative imaging approach is implemented in the E-field Parallel Imaging Correlator (EPIC) that was recently deployed on the Long Wavelength Array station at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (LWA-SV) in New Mexico. EPIC uses a novel architecture that produces electric field or intensity images of the sky at the angular resolution of the array with full or partial polarization and the full spectral resolution of the channelizer. By eliminating the intermediate cross-correlation data products, the computational costs can be significantly lowered in comparison to a conventional FX or XF correlator from $\mathcal {O}(N^2)$ to $\mathcal {O}(N \log N)$ for dense (but otherwise arbitrary) array layouts. EPIC can also lower the output data rates by directly yielding polarimetric image products for science analysis. We have optimized EPIC and have now commissioned it at LWA-SV as a commensal all-sky imaging back-end that can potentially detect and localize sources of impulsive radio emission on millisecond timescales. In this article, we review the architecture of EPIC, describe code optimizations that improve performance, and present initial validations from commissioning observations. Comparisons between EPIC measurements and simultaneous beam-formed observations of bright sources show spectral-temporal structures in good agreement.

 

This paper presents the design and deployment of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) phase II system. HERA is designed as a staged experiment targeting 21 cm emission measurements of the Epoch of Reionization. First results from the phase I array are published as of early 2022, and deployment of the phase II system is nearing completion. We describe the design of the phase II system and discuss progress on commissioning and future upgrades. As HERA is a designated Square Kilometre Array pathfinder instrument, we also show a number of “case studies” that investigate systematics seen while commissioning the phase II system, which may be of use in the design and operation of future arrays. Common pathologies are likely to manifest in similar ways across instruments, and many of these sources of contamination can be mitigated once the source is identified.

 

To mitigate the effects of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on the data analysis pipelines of 21 cm interferometric instruments, numerous inpaint techniques have been developed. In this paper, we examine the qualitative and quantitative errors introduced into the visibilities and power spectrum due to inpainting. We perform our analysis on simulated data as well as real data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) Phase 1 upper limits. We also introduce a convolutional neural network that is capable of inpainting RFI corrupted data. We train our network on simulated data and show that our network is capable of inpainting real data without requiring to be retrained. We find that techniques that incorporate high wavenumbers in delay space in their modelling are best suited for inpainting over narrowband RFI. We show that with our fiducial parameters discrete prolate spheroidal sequences (dpss) and clean provide the best performance for intermittent RFI while Gaussian progress regression (gpr) and least squares spectral analysis (lssa) provide the best performance for larger RFI gaps. However, we caution that these qualitative conclusions are sensitive to the chosen hyperparameters of each inpainting technique. We show that all inpainting techniques reliably reproduce foreground dominated modes in the power spectrum. Since the inpainting techniques should not be capable of reproducing noise realizations, we find that the largest errors occur in the noise dominated delay modes. We show that as the noise level of the data comes down, clean and dpss are most capable of reproducing the fine frequency structure in the visibilities.

 

Radio interferometers aiming to measure the power spectrum of the redshifted 21 cm line during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) need to achieve an unprecedented dynamic range to separate the weak signal from overwhelming foreground emissions. Calibration inaccuracies can compromise the sensitivity of these measurements to the effect that a detection of the EoR is precluded. An alternative to standard analysis techniques makes use of the closure phase, which allows one to bypass antenna-based direction-independent calibration. Similarly to standard approaches, we use a delay spectrum technique to search for the EoR signal. Using 94 nights of data observed with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), we place approximate constraints on the 21 cm power spectrum at z = 7.7. We find at 95 per cent confidence that the 21 cm EoR brightness temperature is ≤(372)2 ‘pseudo’ mK2 at 1.14 ‘pseudo’ h Mpc−1, where the ‘pseudo’ emphasizes that these limits are to be interpreted as approximations to the actual distance scales and brightness temperatures. Using a fiducial EoR model, we demonstrate the feasibility of detecting the EoR with the full array. Compared to standard methods, the closure phase processing is relatively simple, thereby providing an important independent check on results derived using visibility intensities, or related.

 

Combining the visibilities measured by an interferometer to form a cosmological power spectrum is a complicated process. In a delay-based analysis, the mapping between instrumental and cosmological space is not a one-to-one relation. Instead, neighbouring modes contribute to the power measured at one point, with their respective contributions encoded in the window functions. To better understand the power measured by an interferometer, we assess the impact of instrument characteristics and analysis choices on these window functions. Focusing on the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) as a case study, we find that long-baseline observations correspond to enhanced low-k tails of the window functions, which facilitate foreground leakage, whilst an informed choice of bandwidth and frequency taper can reduce said tails. With simple test cases and realistic simulations, we show that, apart from tracing mode mixing, the window functions help accurately reconstruct the power spectrum estimator of simulated visibilities. The window functions depend strongly on the beam chromaticity and less on its spatial structure – a Gaussian approximation, ignoring side lobes, is sufficient. Finally, we investigate the potential of asymmetric window functions, down-weighting the contribution of low-k power to avoid foreground leakage. The window functions presented here correspond to the latest HERA upper limits for the full Phase I data. They allow an accurate reconstruction of the power spectrum measured by the instrument and will be used in future analyses to confront theoretical models and data directly in cylindrical space.

 

We present a Bayesian jackknife test for assessing the probability that a data set contains biased subsets, and, if so, which of the subsets are likely to be biased. The test can be used to assess the presence and likely source of statistical tension between different measurements of the same quantities in an automated manner. Under certain broadly applicable assumptions, the test is analytically tractable. We also provide an open-source code, chiborg, that performs both analytic and numerical computations of the test on general Gaussian-distributed data. After exploring the information theoretical aspects of the test and its performance with an array of simulations, we apply it to data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to assess whether different sub-seasons of observing can justifiably be combined to produce a deeper 21 cm power spectrum upper limit. We find that, with a handful of exceptions, the HERA data in question are statistically consistent and this decision is justified. We conclude by pointing out the wide applicability of this test, including to CMB experiments and the H0 tension.

 

We report the most sensitive upper limits to date on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum using 94 nights of observing with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Using similar analysis techniques as in previously reported limits, we find at 95% confidence that Δ²(k= 0.34hMpc⁻¹) ≤ 457 mK²atz= 7.9 and that Δ²(k= 0.36hMpc⁻¹) ≤ 3496 mK²atz= 10.4, an improvement by a factor of 2.1 and 2.6, respectively. These limits are mostly consistent with thermal noise over a wide range ofkafter our data quality cuts, despite performing a relatively conservative analysis designed to minimize signal loss. Our results are validated with both statistical tests on the data and end-to-end pipeline simulations. We also report updated constraints on the astrophysics of reionization and the cosmic dawn. Using multiple independent modeling and inference techniques previously employed by HERA Collaboration, we find that the intergalactic medium must have been heated above the adiabatic cooling limit at least as early asz= 10.4, ruling out a broad set of so-called “cold reionization” scenarios. If this heating is due to high-mass X-ray binaries during the cosmic dawn, as is generally believed, our result’s 99% credible interval excludes the local relationship between soft X-ray luminosity and star formation and thus requires heating driven by evolved low-metallicity stars.

 

Abstract We report upper limits on the Epoch of Reionization 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts 7.9 and 10.4 with 18 nights of data (∼36 hr of integration) from Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). The Phase I data show evidence for systematics that can be largely suppressed with systematic models down to a dynamic range of ∼10 9 with respect to the peak foreground power. This yields a 95% confidence upper limit on the 21 cm power spectrum of Δ 21 2 ≤ ( 30.76 ) 2 mK 2 at k = 0.192 h Mpc −1 at z = 7.9, and also Δ 21 2 ≤ ( 95.74 ) 2 mK 2 at k = 0.256 h Mpc −1 at z = 10.4. At z = 7.9, these limits are the most sensitive to date by over an order of magnitude. While we find evidence for residual systematics at low line-of-sight Fourier k ∥ modes, at high k ∥ modes we find our data to be largely consistent with thermal noise, an indicator that the system could benefit from deeper integrations. The observed systematics could be due to radio frequency interference, cable subreflections, or residual instrumental cross-coupling, and warrant further study. This analysis emphasizes algorithms that have minimal inherent signal loss, although we do perform a careful accounting in a companion paper of the small forms of loss or bias associated with the pipeline. Overall, these results are a promising first step in the development of a tuned, instrument-specific analysis pipeline for HERA, particularly as Phase II construction is completed en route to reaching the full sensitivity of the experiment.