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Abstract We present the first results of the holographic beam-mapping program for the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). We describe the implementation of a holographic technique as adapted for CHIME, and introduce the processing pipeline which prepares the raw holographic timestreams for analysis of beam features. We use data from six bright sources across the full 400–800 MHz observing band of CHIME to provide measurements of the copolar and cross-polar beam response in both amplitude and phase for all 1024 dual-polarized feeds in the array. In addition, we present comparisons with independent probes of the CHIME beam, which indicate the presence of polarized beam leakage. Holographic measurements of the beam have already been applied in science with CHIME, e.g., in estimating the detection significance of far-sidelobe fast radio bursts, and in validating the beam models used for CHIME’s first detections of 21 cm emission (in cross-correlation with measurements of large-scale structure from galaxy surveys and the Lyαforest). Measurements presented in this paper, and future holographic results, will provide a unique data set to characterize the CHIME beam and improve the experiment’s prospects for a detection of the baryon acoustic oscillation signal. 

Foreground mitigation is critical to all next-generation radio interferometers that target cosmology using the redshifted neutral hydrogen 21 cm emission line. Attempts to remove this foreground emission have led to new analysis techniques as well as new developments in hardware specifically dedicated to instrument beam and gain calibration, including stabilized signal injection into the interferometric array and drone-based platforms for beam mapping. The radio calibration sources currently used in the literature are broad-band incoherent sources that can only be detected as excess power and with no direct sensitivity to phase information. In this paper, we describe a digital radio source which uses Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) derived time stamps to form a deterministic signal that can be broadcast from an aerial platform. A copy of this source can be deployed locally at the instrument correlator such that the received signal from the aerial platform can be correlated with the local copy, and the resulting correlation can be measured in both amplitude and phase for each interferometric element. We define the requirements for such a source, describe an initial implementation and verification of this source using commercial Software Defined Radio boards, and present beam map slices from antenna range measurements using the commercial boards. We found that the commercial board did not meet all requirements, so we also suggest future directions using a more sophisticated chipset. 

Foreground mitigation is critical to all next-generation radio interferometers that target cosmology using the redshifted neutral hydrogen 21 cm emission line. Attempts to remove this foreground emission have led to new analysis techniques as well as new developments in hardware specifically dedicated to instrument beam and gain calibration, including stabilized signal injection into the interferometric array and drone-based platforms for beam mapping. The radio calibration sources currently used in the literature are broad-band incoherent sources that can only be detected as excess power and with no direct sensitivity to phase information. In this paper, we describe a digital radio source which uses Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) derived time stamps to form a deterministic signal that can be broadcast from an aerial platform. A copy of this source can be deployed locally at the instrument correlator such that the received signal from the aerial platform can be correlated with the local copy, and the resulting correlation can be measured in both amplitude and phase for each interferometric element. We define the requirements for such a source, describe an initial implementation and verification of this source using commercial Software Defined Radio boards, and present beam map slices from antenna range measurements using the commercial boards. We found that the commercial board did not meet all requirements, so we also suggest future directions using a more sophisticated chipset. 

Abstract We report 10 fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected in the far sidelobe region (i.e., ≥5° off-meridian) of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) from August 28 2018 to August 31 2021. We localize the bursts by fitting their spectra with a model of the CHIME/FRB synthesized beam response. We find that the far sidelobe events have on average ∼500 times greater fluxes than events detected in CHIME’s main lobe. We show that the sidelobe sample is therefore statistically ∼20 times closer than the main lobe sample. We find promising host galaxy candidates (P_cc< 1%) for two of the FRBs, 20190112B and 20210310B, at distances of 38 and 16 Mpc, respectively. CHIME/FRB did not observe repetition of similar brightness from the uniform sample of 10 sidelobe FRBs in a total exposure time of 35,580 hr. Under the assumption of Poisson-distributed bursts, we infer that the mean repetition interval above the detection threshold of the far sidelobe events is longer than 11,880 hr, which is at least 2380 times larger than the interval from known CHIME/FRB detected repeating sources, with some caveats, notably that very narrowband events could have been missed. Our results from these far sidelobe events suggest one of two scenarios: either (1) all FRBs repeat and the repetition intervals span a wide range, with high-rate repeaters being a rare sub-population, or (2) non-repeating FRBs are a distinct population different from known repeaters. 

Abstract We report the detection of 21 cm emission at an average redshift $\overline{z}=2.3$in the cross-correlation of data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) with measurements of the Lyαforest from eBOSS. Data collected by CHIME over 88 days in the 400–500 MHz frequency band (1.8 <z< 2.5) are formed into maps of the sky and high-pass delay filtered to suppress the foreground power, corresponding to removing cosmological scales withk_∥≲ 0.13 Mpc⁻¹at the average redshift. Line-of-sight spectra to the eBOSS background quasar locations are extracted from the CHIME maps and combined with the Lyαforest flux transmission spectra to estimate the 21 cm–Lyαcross-correlation function. Fitting a simulation-derived template function to this measurement results in a 9σdetection significance. The coherent accumulation of the signal through cross-correlation is sufficient to enable a detection despite excess variance from foreground residuals ∼6–10 times brighter than the expected thermal noise level in the correlation function. These results are the highest-redshift measurement of 21 cm emission to date, and they set the stage for future 21 cm intensity mapping analyses atz> 1.8. 

Abstract We present a high-significance cross-correlation of CMB lensing maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) with luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Survey spectroscopically calibrated by DESI. We detect this cross-correlation at a significance of 38σ; combining our measurement with thePlanck Public Release 4 (PR4) lensing map, we detect the cross-correlation at 50σ. Fitting this jointly with the galaxy auto-correlation power spectrum to break the galaxy bias degeneracy withσ₈, we perform a tomographic analysis in four LRG redshift bins spanning 0.4 ≤z≤ 1.0 to constrain the amplitude of matter density fluctuations through the parameter combinationS₈^×=σ₈(Ω_m/ 0.3)^0.4. Prior to unblinding, we confirm with extragalactic simulations that foreground biases are negligible and carry out a comprehensive suite of null and consistency tests. Using a hybrid effective field theory (HEFT) model that allows scales as small ask_max= 0.6 h/ Mpc, we obtain a 3.3% constraint onS₈^×=σ₈(Ω_m/ 0.3)^0.4= 0.792^+0.024_-0.028from ACT data, as well as constraints onS₈^×(z) that probe structure formation over cosmic time.Our result is consistent with the early-universe extrapolation from primary CMB anisotropies measured byPlanck PR4 within 1.2σ. Jointly fitting ACT andPlanck lensing cross-correlations we obtain a 2.7% constraint ofS₈^×= 0.776^+0.019_-0.021, which is consistent with the Planck early-universe extrapolation within 2.1σ, with the lowest redshift bin showing the largest difference in mean. The latter may motivate further CMB lensing tomography analyses atz< 0.6 to assess the impact of potential systematics or the consistency of the ΛCDM model over cosmic time. 

Abstract We present power spectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy in temperature and polarization, measured from the Data Release 6 maps made from Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) data. These cover 19,000 deg²of sky in bands centered at 98, 150 and 220 GHz, with white noise levels three times lower thanPlanckin polarization. We find that the ACT angular power spectra estimated over 10,000 deg², and measured to arcminute scales in TT, TE and EE, are well fit by the sum of CMB and foregrounds, where the CMB spectra are described by the ΛCDM model. Combining ACT with larger-scalePlanckdata, the joint P-ACT dataset provides tight limits on the ingredients, expansion rate, and initial conditions of the universe. We find similar constraining power, and consistent results, from either thePlanckpower spectra or from ACT combined withWMAPdata, as well as from either temperature or polarization in the joint P-ACT dataset. When combined with CMB lensing from ACT andPlanck, and baryon acoustic oscillation data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI DR1), we measure a baryon density of Ω_bh²= 0.0226 ± 0.0001, a cold dark matter density of Ω_ch²= 0.118 ± 0.001, a Hubble constant ofH₀= 68.22 ± 0.36 km/s/Mpc, a spectral index ofn_s= 0.974 ± 0.003, and an amplitude of density fluctuations ofσ₈= 0.813 ± 0.005. Including the DESI DR2 data tightens the Hubble constant toH₀= 68.43 ± 0.27 km/s/Mpc; ΛCDM parameters agree between the P-ACT and DESI DR2 data at the 1.6σlevel. We find no evidence for excess lensing in the power spectrum, and no departure from spatial flatness. The contribution from Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) anisotropy is detected at high significance; we find evidence for a tilt with suppressed small-scale power compared to our baseline SZ template spectrum, consistent with hydrodynamical simulations with feedback.