Person: Gaensler, Bryan
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Publication The Murchison Widefield Array 21 cm Power Spectrum Analysis Methodology
(American Astronomical Society, 2016) Jacobs, Daniel C.; Hazelton, B. J.; Trott, C. M.; Dillon, Joshua S.; Pindor, B.; Sullivan, I. S.; Pober, J. C.; Barry, N.; Beardsley, A. P.; Bernardi, G.; Bowman, Judd D.; Briggs, F.; Cappallo, R. J.; Carroll, P.; Corey, B. E.; de Oliveira-Costa, A.; Emrich, D.; Ewall-Wice, A.; Feng, L.; Gaensler, Bryan; Goeke, R.; Greenhill, Lincoln; Hewitt, J. N.; Hurley-Walker, N.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; Kaplan, D. L.; Kasper, J. C.; Kim, HS; Kratzenberg, E.; Lenc, E.; Line, J.; Loeb, Abraham; Lonsdale, C. J.; Lynch, M. J.; McKinley, B.; McWhirter, S. R.; Mitchell, D. A.; Morales, M. F.; Morgan, E.; Neben, A. R.; Thyagarajan, N.; Oberoi, D.; Offringa, A. R.; Ord, Stephen; Paul, S.; Prabu, T.; Procopio, P.; Riding, J.; Rogers, A. E. E.; Roshi, A.; Shankar, N. Udaya; Sethi, Shiv K.; Srivani, K. S.; Subrahmanyan, R.; Tegmark, M.; Tingay, S. J.; Waterson, M.; Wayth, R. B.; Webster, R. L.; Whitney, A. R.; Williams, A.; Williams, C. L.; Wu, C.; Wyithe, J. S. B.We present the 21 cm power spectrum analysis approach of the Murchison Widefield Array Epoch of Reionization project. In this paper, we compare the outputs of multiple pipelines for the purpose of validating statistical limits cosmological hydrogen at redshifts between 6 and 12. Multiple, independent, data calibration and reduction pipelines are used to make power spectrum limits on a fiducial night of data. Comparing the outputs of imaging and power spectrum stages highlights differences in calibration, foreground subtraction and power spectrum calculation. The power spectra found using these different methods span a space defined by the various tradeoffs between speed, accuracy, and systematic control. Lessons learned from comparing the pipelines range from the algorithmic to the prosaically mundane; all demonstrate the many pitfalls of neglecting reproducibility. We briefly discuss the way these different methods attempt to handle the question of evaluating a significant detection in the presence of foregrounds.
Publication Parametrizing Epoch of Reionization foregrounds: a deep survey of low-frequency point-source spectra with the Murchison Widefield Array
(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2016) Offringa, A. R.; Trott, C. M.; Hurley-Walker, N.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; McKinley, B.; Barry, N.; Beardsley, A. P.; Bowman, J. D.; Briggs, F.; Carroll, P.; Dillon, J. S.; Ewall-Wice, A.; Feng, L.; Gaensler, Bryan; Greenhill, Lincoln; Hazelton, B. J.; Hewitt, J. N.; Jacobs, D. C.; Kim, H.-S.; Kittiwisit, P.; Lenc, E.; Line, J.; Loeb, Abraham; Mitchell, D. A.; Morales, M. F.; Neben, A. R.; Paul, S.; Pindor, B.; Pober, J. C.; Procopio, P.; Riding, J.; Sethi, S. K.; Shankar, N. U.; Subrahmanyan, R.; Sullivan, I. S.; Tegmark, M.; Thyagarajan, N.; Tingay, S. J.; Wayth, R. B.; Webster, R. L.; Wyithe, J. S. B.Experiments that pursue detection of signals from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are relying on spectral smoothness of source spectra at low frequencies. This article empirically explores the effect of foreground spectra on EoR experiments by measuring high-resolution full-polarization spectra for the 586 brightest unresolved sources in one of the MWA EoR fields using 45 h of observation. A novel peeling scheme is used to subtract 2500 sources from the visibilities with ionospheric and beam corrections, resulting in the deepest, confusion-limited MWA image so far. The resulting spectra are found to be affected by instrumental effects, which limit the constraints that can be set on source-intrinsic spectral structure. The sensitivity and power-spectrum of the spectra are analysed, and it is found that the spectra of residuals are dominated by PSF sidelobes from nearby undeconvolved sources. We release a catalogue describing the spectral parameters for each measured source.