Calibration requirements for Epoch of Reionization 21-cm signal observations -- IV. Bias and variance with time and frequency correlated residual gains

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Main Authors: Gayen, Saikat, Kumar, Jais, Dutta, Prasun, Elahi, Khandakar Md Asif, Choudhuri, Samir, Roy, Nirupam
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gayen, Saikat
Kumar, Jais
Dutta, Prasun
Elahi, Khandakar Md Asif
Choudhuri, Samir
Roy, Nirupam
author_facet Gayen, Saikat
Kumar, Jais
Dutta, Prasun
Elahi, Khandakar Md Asif
Choudhuri, Samir
Roy, Nirupam
contents Observation of multifrequency angular power spectrum of the redshifted 21-cm brightness temperature fluctuation from the neutral hydrogen holds the key to understand the structure formation and its evolution during the reionization and post-reionization era. A major challenge in observing the neutral hydrogen arises from presence of strong foreground signals in the frequency range of interest. Mitigating the direct effect of foregrounds are being addressed through various techniques in literature. An additional second order effect arises, in presence of foreground, with limited accuracy in time and frequency dependent gain calibrations. This manifests as the residual gain and bandpass error in the observed data, introduces bias and increases uncertainty in the estimates of multifrequency angular power spectrum. In this work, we present an analytic method to estimate the bias and excess uncertainty in the estimates of multifrequency angular power spectrum in presence of residual gain and bandpass errors. We use this framework to estimate the effect of these errors for detection of redshifted 21-cm emission from a redshift of $\sim 8$ with the upcoming SKA1-Low. Due to the high baseline density at the required range of angular multipoles, the SKA1-Low is found to be a tuned instrument for the redshifted 21-cm signal detection. We find that, there are scenario with residual gain and bandpass errors where there can be significant bias in these estimates. Certain foreground mitigation strategies, is expected to reduce a part of the bias. The detailed study of different aspects of gain and bandpass errors and their relative effects are discussed. We find, with assumed models of gain and bandpass errors, signal detection is possible at this redshift with $128$ hours of observations. However, to achieve this one needs to have better calibration accuracy than present day interferometers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_23825
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Calibration requirements for Epoch of Reionization 21-cm signal observations -- IV. Bias and variance with time and frequency correlated residual gains
Gayen, Saikat
Kumar, Jais
Dutta, Prasun
Elahi, Khandakar Md Asif
Choudhuri, Samir
Roy, Nirupam
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Observation of multifrequency angular power spectrum of the redshifted 21-cm brightness temperature fluctuation from the neutral hydrogen holds the key to understand the structure formation and its evolution during the reionization and post-reionization era. A major challenge in observing the neutral hydrogen arises from presence of strong foreground signals in the frequency range of interest. Mitigating the direct effect of foregrounds are being addressed through various techniques in literature. An additional second order effect arises, in presence of foreground, with limited accuracy in time and frequency dependent gain calibrations. This manifests as the residual gain and bandpass error in the observed data, introduces bias and increases uncertainty in the estimates of multifrequency angular power spectrum. In this work, we present an analytic method to estimate the bias and excess uncertainty in the estimates of multifrequency angular power spectrum in presence of residual gain and bandpass errors. We use this framework to estimate the effect of these errors for detection of redshifted 21-cm emission from a redshift of $\sim 8$ with the upcoming SKA1-Low. Due to the high baseline density at the required range of angular multipoles, the SKA1-Low is found to be a tuned instrument for the redshifted 21-cm signal detection. We find that, there are scenario with residual gain and bandpass errors where there can be significant bias in these estimates. Certain foreground mitigation strategies, is expected to reduce a part of the bias. The detailed study of different aspects of gain and bandpass errors and their relative effects are discussed. We find, with assumed models of gain and bandpass errors, signal detection is possible at this redshift with $128$ hours of observations. However, to achieve this one needs to have better calibration accuracy than present day interferometers.
title Calibration requirements for Epoch of Reionization 21-cm signal observations -- IV. Bias and variance with time and frequency correlated residual gains
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.23825