Investigating mutual coupling in the hydrogen epoch of reionization array and mitigating its effects on the 21-cm power spectrum

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorGhosh, Amitav
dc.contributor.authorKittiwisit, Piyanat
dc.contributor.authorSantos, Mario
dc.date.accessioned2025-11-06T07:34:14Z
dc.date.available2025-11-06T07:34:14Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractInterferometric experiments designed to detect the highly redshifted 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen are producing increasingly stringent constraints on the 21-cm power spectrum, but some k-modes remain systematics-dominated. Mutual coupling is a major systematic that must be o v ercome in order to detect the 21-cm signal, and simulations that reproduce effects seen in the data can guide strategies for mitigating mutual coupling. In this paper, we analyse 12 nights of data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array and compare the data against simulations that include a computationally efficient and physically moti v ated semi-analytic treatment of mutual coupling. We find that simulated coupling features qualitatively agree with coupling features in the data; ho we ver, coupling features in the data are brighter than the simulated features, indicating the presence of additional coupling mechanisms not captured by our model. We explore the use of fringe-rate filters as mutual coupling mitigation tools and use our simulations to investigate the effects of mutual coupling on a simulated cosmological 21-cm power spectrum in a ‘worst case’ scenario where the foregrounds are particularly bright. We find that mutual coupling contaminates a large portion of the ‘EoR Window’, and the contamination is several orders-of-magnitude larger than our simulated cosmic signal across a wide range of cosmological Fourier modes. While our fiducial fringe-rate filtering strategy reduces mutual coupling by roughly a factor of 100 in power, a non-negligible amount of coupling cannot be excised with fringe-rate filters, so more sophisticated mitigation strategies are required.
dc.identifier.citationRath, E. et al. (2025) Investigating mutual coupling in the hydrogen epoch of reionization array and mitigating its effects on the 21-cm power spectrum. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. [Online] 541 (2), 1125–1144.
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1012
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/21383
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherOxford University Press
dc.subjectscattering
dc.subjectinstrumentation
dc.subjectinterferometers
dc.subjectreionization
dc.subjectHydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
dc.titleInvestigating mutual coupling in the hydrogen epoch of reionization array and mitigating its effects on the 21-cm power spectrum
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
rath_investigating_mutual_coupling_in_the_2025.pdf
Size:
2.33 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Research Articles (Physics)