THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS

Abraham R. Neben; Richard F. Bradley; Jacqueline N. Hewitt; David R. Deboer; Aaron R. Parsons; James E. Aguirre; Zaki S. Ali; Carina Cheng; Aaron Ewall-Wice; Nipanjana Patra; Nithyanandan Thyagarajan; Judd Bowman; Roger Dickenson; Joshua S. Dillon; Phillip Doolittle; Dennis Egan; Mike Hedrick; Daniel Jacobs; Saul A. Kohn; Patricia J. Klima; Kavilan Moodley; Benjamin R B Saliwanchik; Patrick Schaffner; John Shelton; H. A. Taylor; Rusty Taylor; Max Tegmark; Butch Wirt; Haoxuan Zheng

doi:10.3847/0004-637X/826/2/199

THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS

Abraham R. Neben, Richard F. Bradley, Jacqueline N. Hewitt, David R. Deboer, Aaron R. Parsons, James E. Aguirre, Zaki S. Ali, Carina Cheng, Aaron Ewall-Wice, Nipanjana Patra, Nithyanandan Thyagarajan, Judd Bowman, Roger Dickenson, Joshua S. Dillon, Phillip Doolittle, Dennis Egan, Mike Hedrick, Daniel Jacobs, Saul A. Kohn, Patricia J. KlimaKavilan Moodley, Benjamin R B Saliwanchik, Patrick Schaffner, John Shelton, H. A. Taylor, Rusty Taylor, Max Tegmark, Butch Wirt, Haoxuan Zheng

Earth and Space Exploration, School of (SESE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is a radio interferometer aiming to detect the power spectrum of 21 cm fluctuations from neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (EOR). Drawing on lessons from the Murchison Widefield Array and the Precision Array for Probing the EOR, HERA is a hexagonal array of large (14 m diameter) dishes with suspended dipole feeds. The dish not only determines overall sensitivity, but also affects the observed frequency structure of foregrounds in the interferometer. This is the first of a series of four papers characterizing the frequency and angular response of the dish with simulations and measurements. In this paper, we focus on the angular response (i.e., power pattern), which sets the relative weighting between sky regions of high and low delay and thus apparent source frequency structure. We measure the angular response at 137 MHz using the ORBCOMM beam mapping system of Neben et al. We measure a collecting area of 93 m² in the optimal dish/feed configuration, implying that HERA-320 should detect the EOR power spectrum at z ∼ 9 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 12.7 using a foreground avoidance approach with a single season of observations and 74.3 using a foreground subtraction approach. Finally, we study the impact of these beam measurements on the distribution of foregrounds in Fourier space.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	199
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	826
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/826/2/199
State	Published - Aug 1 2016

Keywords

cosmology: observations
dark ages, reionization, first stars
instrumentation: interferometers

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.3847/0004-637X/826/2/199

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Neben, A. R., Bradley, R. F., Hewitt, J. N., Deboer, D. R., Parsons, A. R., Aguirre, J. E., Ali, Z. S., Cheng, C., Ewall-Wice, A., Patra, N., Thyagarajan, N., Bowman, J., Dickenson, R., Dillon, J. S., Doolittle, P., Egan, D., Hedrick, M., Jacobs, D., Kohn, S. A., ... Zheng, H. (2016). THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS. Astrophysical Journal, 826(2), Article 199. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/826/2/199

Neben, AR, Bradley, RF, Hewitt, JN, Deboer, DR, Parsons, AR, Aguirre, JE, Ali, ZS, Cheng, C, Ewall-Wice, A, Patra, N, Thyagarajan, N, Bowman, J, Dickenson, R, Dillon, JS, Doolittle, P, Egan, D, Hedrick, M, Jacobs, D, Kohn, SA, Klima, PJ, Moodley, K, Saliwanchik, BRB, Schaffner, P, Shelton, J, Taylor, HA, Taylor, R, Tegmark, M, Wirt, B & Zheng, H 2016, 'THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS', Astrophysical Journal, vol. 826, no. 2, 199. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/826/2/199

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title = "THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS",

abstract = "The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is a radio interferometer aiming to detect the power spectrum of 21 cm fluctuations from neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (EOR). Drawing on lessons from the Murchison Widefield Array and the Precision Array for Probing the EOR, HERA is a hexagonal array of large (14 m diameter) dishes with suspended dipole feeds. The dish not only determines overall sensitivity, but also affects the observed frequency structure of foregrounds in the interferometer. This is the first of a series of four papers characterizing the frequency and angular response of the dish with simulations and measurements. In this paper, we focus on the angular response (i.e., power pattern), which sets the relative weighting between sky regions of high and low delay and thus apparent source frequency structure. We measure the angular response at 137 MHz using the ORBCOMM beam mapping system of Neben et al. We measure a collecting area of 93 m2 in the optimal dish/feed configuration, implying that HERA-320 should detect the EOR power spectrum at z ∼ 9 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 12.7 using a foreground avoidance approach with a single season of observations and 74.3 using a foreground subtraction approach. Finally, we study the impact of these beam measurements on the distribution of foregrounds in Fourier space.",

keywords = "cosmology: observations, dark ages, reionization, first stars, instrumentation: interferometers",

author = "Neben, {Abraham R.} and Bradley, {Richard F.} and Hewitt, {Jacqueline N.} and Deboer, {David R.} and Parsons, {Aaron R.} and Aguirre, {James E.} and Ali, {Zaki S.} and Carina Cheng and Aaron Ewall-Wice and Nipanjana Patra and Nithyanandan Thyagarajan and Judd Bowman and Roger Dickenson and Dillon, {Joshua S.} and Phillip Doolittle and Dennis Egan and Mike Hedrick and Daniel Jacobs and Kohn, {Saul A.} and Klima, {Patricia J.} and Kavilan Moodley and Saliwanchik, {Benjamin R B} and Patrick Schaffner and John Shelton and Taylor, {H. A.} and Rusty Taylor and Max Tegmark and Butch Wirt and Haoxuan Zheng",

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AU - Neben, Abraham R.

AU - Bradley, Richard F.

AU - Hewitt, Jacqueline N.

AU - Deboer, David R.

AU - Parsons, Aaron R.

AU - Aguirre, James E.

AU - Ali, Zaki S.

AU - Cheng, Carina

AU - Ewall-Wice, Aaron

AU - Patra, Nipanjana

AU - Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan

AU - Bowman, Judd

AU - Dickenson, Roger

AU - Dillon, Joshua S.

AU - Doolittle, Phillip

AU - Egan, Dennis

AU - Hedrick, Mike

AU - Jacobs, Daniel

AU - Kohn, Saul A.

AU - Klima, Patricia J.

AU - Moodley, Kavilan

AU - Saliwanchik, Benjamin R B

AU - Schaffner, Patrick

AU - Shelton, John

AU - Taylor, H. A.

AU - Taylor, Rusty

AU - Tegmark, Max

AU - Wirt, Butch

AU - Zheng, Haoxuan

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N2 - The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is a radio interferometer aiming to detect the power spectrum of 21 cm fluctuations from neutral hydrogen from the epoch of reionization (EOR). Drawing on lessons from the Murchison Widefield Array and the Precision Array for Probing the EOR, HERA is a hexagonal array of large (14 m diameter) dishes with suspended dipole feeds. The dish not only determines overall sensitivity, but also affects the observed frequency structure of foregrounds in the interferometer. This is the first of a series of four papers characterizing the frequency and angular response of the dish with simulations and measurements. In this paper, we focus on the angular response (i.e., power pattern), which sets the relative weighting between sky regions of high and low delay and thus apparent source frequency structure. We measure the angular response at 137 MHz using the ORBCOMM beam mapping system of Neben et al. We measure a collecting area of 93 m2 in the optimal dish/feed configuration, implying that HERA-320 should detect the EOR power spectrum at z ∼ 9 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 12.7 using a foreground avoidance approach with a single season of observations and 74.3 using a foreground subtraction approach. Finally, we study the impact of these beam measurements on the distribution of foregrounds in Fourier space.

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KW - cosmology: observations

KW - dark ages, reionization, first stars

KW - instrumentation: interferometers

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THE HYDROGEN EPOCH of REIONIZATION ARRAY DISH. I. BEAM PATTERN MEASUREMENTS and SCIENCE IMPLICATIONS

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