Disentangling the anisotropic radio sky: Fisher forecasts for 21cm arrays

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Zheng, Bull, Philip, Glasscock, Katrine A.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Zhang, Zheng
Bull, Philip
Glasscock, Katrine A.
author_facet Zhang, Zheng
Bull, Philip
Glasscock, Katrine A.
contents The existence of a radio synchrotron background (RSB) excess is implied by a number of measurements, including excess emission seen by the ARCADE~2 and LWA experiments. Highly sensitive wideband radio arrays, of the kind used to measure the cosmic 21cm signal, provide a promising way to further constrain the RSB excess through its anisotropy, providing additional insight into its origin. We present a framework for evaluating the potential of 21cm arrays to disentangle different components of the diffuse radio sky based on the combination of their frequency spectrum and angular power spectrum (APS). The formalism is designed to calculate uncertainties due to the intrinsic cosmic variance alone or together with instrumental noise. In particular, we predict the potential for measuring the anisotropy of a broad generalised class of excess radio background models using the low-frequency HERA array as an example. We find that a HERA-like array can distinguish an RSB excess from other sky components based on its angular clustering and spectral dependence, even if these are quite similar to one or more of the other components -- but only in the case that the RSB excess is relatively bright.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_13768
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Disentangling the anisotropic radio sky: Fisher forecasts for 21cm arrays
Zhang, Zheng
Bull, Philip
Glasscock, Katrine A.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
The existence of a radio synchrotron background (RSB) excess is implied by a number of measurements, including excess emission seen by the ARCADE~2 and LWA experiments. Highly sensitive wideband radio arrays, of the kind used to measure the cosmic 21cm signal, provide a promising way to further constrain the RSB excess through its anisotropy, providing additional insight into its origin. We present a framework for evaluating the potential of 21cm arrays to disentangle different components of the diffuse radio sky based on the combination of their frequency spectrum and angular power spectrum (APS). The formalism is designed to calculate uncertainties due to the intrinsic cosmic variance alone or together with instrumental noise. In particular, we predict the potential for measuring the anisotropy of a broad generalised class of excess radio background models using the low-frequency HERA array as an example. We find that a HERA-like array can distinguish an RSB excess from other sky components based on its angular clustering and spectral dependence, even if these are quite similar to one or more of the other components -- but only in the case that the RSB excess is relatively bright.
title Disentangling the anisotropic radio sky: Fisher forecasts for 21cm arrays
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.13768