The effect of foreground mitigation strategy on EoR window recovery

Chapman, Emma; Zaroubi, Saleem; Abdalla, Filipe B.; Dulwich, Fred; Jelić, Vibor; Mort, Benjamin (2016) The effect of foreground mitigation strategy on EoR window recovery. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 458 (3). pp. 2928-2939. ISSN 0035-8711

Preview	PDF - Accepted Version - article Download (1MB) | Preview
Preview	PDF - Published Version - article Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The removal of the Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds remains a major challenge for those wishing to make a detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) 21 cm signal. Multiple methods of modelling these foregrounds with varying levels of assumption have been trialled and shown promising recoveries on simulated data. Recently however there has been increased discussion of using the expected shape of the foregrounds in Fourier space to define an EoR window free of foreground contamination. By carrying out analysis within this window only, one can avoid the foregrounds and any statistical bias they might introduce by instead removing these foregrounds. In this paper, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both foreground removal and foreground avoidance. We create a series of simulations with noise levels in line with both current and future experiments and compare the recovered statistical cosmological signal from foreground avoidance and a simplified, frequency independent foreground removal model. We find that for current generation experiments, while foreground avoidance enables a better recovery at kperp > 0.6 Mpc-1, foreground removal is able to recover significantly more signal at small klos for both current and future experiments. We also relax the assumption that the foregrounds are smooth. For line-of-sight variations only, foreground removal is able to make a good signal recovery even at 1 per cent while foreground avoidance is compromised significantly. We find that both methods perform well for foreground models with line-of-sight and spatial variations around 0.1 per cent however at levels larger than this both methods are compromised.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	methods: statistical; cosmology: theory; dark ages; reionization; first stars; diffuse radiation
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Astronomy and Astrophysics
Divisions:	Division of Experimental Physics
Depositing User:	Vibor Jelić
Date Deposited:	20 Apr 2016 11:31
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/2726
DOI:	10.1093/mnras/stw161

Actions (login required)

View Item