ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9457-1941
Current Organisation
Pretect Devices Pty Ltd
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Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 02-03-2017
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 12-01-2023
Abstract: Combining the visibilities measured by an interferometer to form a cosmological power spectrum is a complicated process. In a delay-based analysis, the mapping between instrumental and cosmological space is not a one-to-one relation. Instead, neighbouring modes contribute to the power measured at one point, with their respective contributions encoded in the window functions. To better understand the power measured by an interferometer, we assess the impact of instrument characteristics and analysis choices on these window functions. Focusing on the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) as a case study, we find that long-baseline observations correspond to enhanced low-k tails of the window functions, which facilitate foreground leakage, whilst an informed choice of bandwidth and frequency taper can reduce said tails. With simple test cases and realistic simulations, we show that, apart from tracing mode mixing, the window functions help accurately reconstruct the power spectrum estimator of simulated visibilities. The window functions depend strongly on the beam chromaticity and less on its spatial structure – a Gaussian approximation, ignoring side lobes, is sufficient. Finally, we investigate the potential of asymmetric window functions, down-weighting the contribution of low-k power to avoid foreground leakage. The window functions presented here correspond to the latest HERA upper limits for the full Phase I data. They allow an accurate reconstruction of the power spectrum measured by the instrument and will be used in future analyses to confront theoretical models and data directly in cylindrical space.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 27-11-2020
Abstract: Abstract. Waves can drastically transform a sea ice cover by inducing break-up over vast distances in the course of a few hours. However, relatively few detailed studies have described this phenomenon in a quantitative manner, and the process of sea ice break-up by waves needs to be further parameterized and verified before it can be reliably included in forecasting models. In the present work, we discuss sea ice break-up parameterization and demonstrate the existence of an observational threshold separating breaking and non-breaking cases. This threshold is based on information from two recent field c aigns, supplemented with existing observations of sea ice break-up. The data used cover a wide range of scales, from laboratory-grown sea ice to polar field observations. Remarkably, we show that both field and laboratory observations tend to converge to a single quantitative threshold at which the wave-induced sea ice break-up takes place, which opens a promising avenue for robust parametrization in operational forecasting models.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 15-09-2020
Abstract: Aiming to fill a crucial gap in our observational knowledge of the early Universe, experiments around the world continue to attempt to verify the claimed detection of the redshifted 21-cm signal from Cosmic Dawn by the EDGES experiment. This sky-averaged or ‘global’ signal from neutral hydrogen should be detectable at low radio frequencies (50–200 MHz), but is difficult to measure due to bright foreground emission and difficulties in reaching the required levels of instrumental-calibration precision. In this paper, we outline our progress toward using a novel new method to measure the global redshifted 21-cm signal. Motivated by the need to use alternative methods with very different systematic errors to EDGES for an independent result, we employ an array of closely spaced antennas to measure the global-sky signal interferometrically, rather than using the conventional approach with a single antenna. We use simulations to demonstrate our newly developed methods and show that, for an idealized instrument, a 21-cm signal could theoretically be extracted from the visibilities of an array of closely spaced dipoles. We verify that our signal-extraction methods work on real data using observations made with a Square-Kilometre-Array-like prototype, the Engineering Development Array-2. Finally, we use the lessons learned in both our simulations and observations to lay out a clear plan for future work, which will ultimately lead to a new global redshifted 21-cm instrument: the All-Sky SignAl Short-Spacing INterferometer (ASSASSIN).
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 08-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 29-11-2022
Abstract: We present a Bayesian jackknife test for assessing the probability that a data set contains biased subsets, and, if so, which of the subsets are likely to be biased. The test can be used to assess the presence and likely source of statistical tension between different measurements of the same quantities in an automated manner. Under certain broadly applicable assumptions, the test is analytically tractable. We also provide an open-source code, chiborg, that performs both analytic and numerical computations of the test on general Gaussian-distributed data. After exploring the information theoretical aspects of the test and its performance with an array of simulations, we apply it to data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to assess whether different sub-seasons of observing can justifiably be combined to produce a deeper 21 cm power spectrum upper limit. We find that, with a handful of exceptions, the HERA data in question are statistically consistent and this decision is justified. We conclude by pointing out the wide applicability of this test, including to CMB experiments and the H0 tension.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 07-04-2020
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1039/D0CS00352B
Abstract: In this Review, we feature the recent developments in the chemistry of fluorescent cyclophanes, along with their design and synthesis. Their host–guest chemistry and applications related to their structure and properties are also highlighted.
Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1029/2021RS007376
Abstract: We present a framework for identifying and flagging malfunctioning antennas in large radio interferometers. We outline two distinct categories of metrics designed to detect outliers along known failure modes of large arrays: cross‐correlation metrics, based on all antenna pairs, and auto‐correlation metrics, based solely on in idual antennas. We define and motivate the statistical framework for all metrics used, and present tailored visualizations that aid us in clearly identifying new and existing systematics. We implement these techniques using data from 105 antennas in the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) as a case study. Finally, we provide a detailed algorithm for implementing these metrics as flagging tools on real data sets.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 10-2022
Abstract: Motivated by the desire for wide-field images with well-defined statistical properties for 21 cm cosmology, we implement an optimal mapping pipeline that computes a maximum likelihood estimator for the sky using the interferometric measurement equation. We demonstrate this “direct optimal mapping” with data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization (HERA) Phase I observations. After validating the pipeline with simulated data, we develop a maximum likelihood figure-of-merit for comparing four sky models at 166 MHz with a bandwidth of 100 kHz. The HERA data agree with the GLEAM catalogs to 10%. After subtracting the GLEAM point sources, the HERA data discriminate between the different continuum sky models, providing most support for the model of Byrne et al. We report the computation cost for mapping the HERA Phase I data and project the computation for the HERA 320-antenna data both are feasible with a modern server. The algorithm is broadly applicable to other interferometers and is valid for wide-field and noncoplanar arrays.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2023
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 08-2014
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 26-06-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 19-02-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 09-11-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-10-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-03-2017
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 29-07-2016
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 09-01-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 10-2020
Abstract: In 21-cm cosmology, precision calibration is key to the separation of the neutral hydrogen signal from very bright but spectrally smooth astrophysical foregrounds. The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), an interferometer specialized for 21-cm cosmology and now under construction in South Africa, was designed to be largely calibrated using the self-consistency of repeated measurements of the same interferometric modes. This technique, known as redundant-baseline calibration resolves most of the internal degrees of freedom in the calibration problem. It assumes, however, on antenna elements with identical primary beams placed precisely on a redundant grid. In this work, we review the detailed implementation of the algorithms enabling redundant-baseline calibration and report results with HERA data. We quantify the effects of real-world non-redundancy and how they compare to the idealized scenario in which redundant measurements differ only in their noise realizations. Finally, we study how non-redundancy can produce spurious temporal structure in our calibration solutions – both in data and in simulations – and present strategies for mitigating that structure.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 10-02-2023
Abstract: To mitigate the effects of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on the data analysis pipelines of 21 cm interferometric instruments, numerous inpaint techniques have been developed. In this paper, we examine the qualitative and quantitative errors introduced into the visibilities and power spectrum due to inpainting. We perform our analysis on simulated data as well as real data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) Phase 1 upper limits. We also introduce a convolutional neural network that is capable of inpainting RFI corrupted data. We train our network on simulated data and show that our network is capable of inpainting real data without requiring to be retrained. We find that techniques that incorporate high wavenumbers in delay space in their modelling are best suited for inpainting over narrowband RFI. We show that with our fiducial parameters discrete prolate spheroidal sequences (dpss) and clean provide the best performance for intermittent RFI while Gaussian progress regression (gpr) and least squares spectral analysis (lssa) provide the best performance for larger RFI gaps. However, we caution that these qualitative conclusions are sensitive to the chosen hyperparameters of each inpainting technique. We show that all inpainting techniques reliably reproduce foreground dominated modes in the power spectrum. Since the inpainting techniques should not be capable of reproducing noise realizations, we find that the largest errors occur in the noise dominated delay modes. We show that as the noise level of the data comes down, clean and dpss are most capable of reproducing the fine frequency structure in the visibilities.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 03-2023
Abstract: We report the most sensitive upper limits to date on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum using 94 nights of observing with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Using similar analysis techniques as in previously reported limits, we find at 95% confidence that Δ 2 ( k = 0.34 h Mpc −1 ) ≤ 457 mK 2 at z = 7.9 and that Δ 2 ( k = 0.36 h Mpc −1 ) ≤ 3496 mK 2 at z = 10.4, an improvement by a factor of 2.1 and 2.6, respectively. These limits are mostly consistent with thermal noise over a wide range of k after our data quality cuts, despite performing a relatively conservative analysis designed to minimize signal loss. Our results are validated with both statistical tests on the data and end-to-end pipeline simulations. We also report updated constraints on the astrophysics of reionization and the cosmic dawn. Using multiple independent modeling and inference techniques previously employed by HERA Collaboration, we find that the intergalactic medium must have been heated above the adiabatic cooling limit at least as early as z = 10.4, ruling out a broad set of so-called “cold reionization” scenarios. If this heating is due to high-mass X-ray binaries during the cosmic dawn, as is generally believed, our result’s 99% credible interval excludes the local relationship between soft X-ray luminosity and star formation and thus requires heating driven by evolved low-metallicity stars.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 02-09-2019
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 04-07-2023
Abstract: We describe the validation of the HERA Phase I software pipeline by a series of modular tests, building up to an end-to-end simulation. The philosophy of this approach is to validate the software and algorithms used in the Phase I upper-limit analysis on wholly synthetic data satisfying the assumptions of that analysis, not addressing whether the actual data meet these assumptions. We discuss the organization of this validation approach, the specific modular tests performed, and the construction of the end-to-end simulations. We explicitly discuss the limitations in scope of the current simulation effort. With mock visibility data generated from a known analytic power spectrum and a wide range of realistic instrumental effects and foregrounds, we demonstrate that the current pipeline produces power spectrum estimates that are consistent with known analytic inputs to within thermal noise levels (at the 2 σ level) for k 0.2 h Mpc −1 for both bands and fields considered. Our input spectrum is intentionally lified to enable a strong “detection” at k ∼ 0.2 h Mpc −1 —at the level of ∼25 σ —with foregrounds dominating on larger scales and thermal noise dominating at smaller scales. Our pipeline is able to detect this lified input signal after suppressing foregrounds with a dynamic range (foreground to noise ratio) of ≳10 7 . Our validation test suite uncovered several sources of scale-independent signal loss throughout the pipeline, whose litude is well-characterized and accounted for in the final estimates. We conclude with a discussion of the steps required for the next round of data analysis.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 22-10-2020
Abstract: The detection of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) delay power spectrum using a ‘foreground avoidance method’ highly depends on the instrument chromaticity. The systematic effects induced by the radio telescope spread the foreground signal in the delay domain, which contaminates the EoR window theoretically observable. Applied to the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), this paper combines detailed electromagnetic and electrical simulations in order to model the chromatic effects of the instrument, and quantify its frequency and time responses. In particular, the effects of the analogue receiver, transmission cables, and mutual coupling are included. These simulations are able to accurately predict the intensity of the reflections occurring in the 150-m cable which links the antenna to the backend. They also show that electromagnetic waves can propagate from one dish to another one through large sections of the array due to mutual coupling. The simulated system time response is attenuated by a factor 104 after a characteristic delay which depends on the size of the array and on the antenna position. Ultimately, the system response is attenuated by a factor 105 after 1400 ns because of the reflections in the cable, which corresponds to characterizable k∥-modes above 0.7 $h\\,\\,\\rm {Mpc}^{-1}$ at 150 MHz. Thus, this new study shows that the detection of the EoR signal with HERA Phase I will be more challenging than expected. On the other hand, it improves our understanding of the telescope, which is essential to mitigate the instrument chromaticity.
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 08-2017
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 02-2022
Abstract: We report upper limits on the Epoch of Reionization 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts 7.9 and 10.4 with 18 nights of data (∼36 hr of integration) from Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). The Phase I data show evidence for systematics that can be largely suppressed with systematic models down to a dynamic range of ∼10 9 with respect to the peak foreground power. This yields a 95% confidence upper limit on the 21 cm power spectrum of Δ 21 2 ≤ ( 30.76 ) 2 mK 2 at k = 0.192 h Mpc −1 at z = 7.9, and also Δ 21 2 ≤ ( 95.74 ) 2 mK 2 at k = 0.256 h Mpc −1 at z = 10.4. At z = 7.9, these limits are the most sensitive to date by over an order of magnitude. While we find evidence for residual systematics at low line-of-sight Fourier k ∥ modes, at high k ∥ modes we find our data to be largely consistent with thermal noise, an indicator that the system could benefit from deeper integrations. The observed systematics could be due to radio frequency interference, cable subreflections, or residual instrumental cross-coupling, and warrant further study. This analysis emphasizes algorithms that have minimal inherent signal loss, although we do perform a careful accounting in a companion paper of the small forms of loss or bias associated with the pipeline. Overall, these results are a promising first step in the development of a tuned, instrument-specific analysis pipeline for HERA, particularly as Phase II construction is completed en route to reaching the full sensitivity of the experiment.
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 09-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-03-2018
Publisher: arXiv
Date: 2021
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 12-03-2015
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.1017/PASA.2023.25
Abstract: The report of a detection of an absorption profile centred at 78 MHz in the continuum radio background spectrum by the EDGES experiment and its interpretation as the redshifted 21 cm signal of cosmological origin has become one of the most debated results of observational cosmology in recent times. The cosmological 21 cm has long been proposed to be a powerful probe for observing the early Universe and tracing its evolution over cosmic time. Even though the science case is well established, measurement challenges posed on the technical ground are not fully understood to the level of claiming a successful detection. EDGES’s detection has naturally motivated a number of experimental attempts worldwide to corroborate the findings. In this paper, we present a precision cross-correlation spectrometer HYPEREION purpose-designed for a precision radio background measurement between 50–120 MHz to detect the absorption profile reported by the EDGES experiment. HYPEREION implements a pre-correlation signal processing technique that self-calibrates any spurious additive contamination from within the system and delivers a differential measurement of the sky spectrum and a reference thermal load internal to the system. This ensures an unambiguous ‘zero-point’ of absolute calibration of the purported absorption profile. We present the system design, measurement equations of the ideal system, systematic effects in the real system, and finally, an assessment of the real system output for the detection of the absorption profile at 78 MHz in the continuum radio background spectrum.
Publisher: arXiv
Date: 2022
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-04-2013
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 03-2023
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 2022
Abstract: Recently, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) has produced the experiment’s first upper limits on the power spectrum of 21 cm fluctuations at z ∼ 8 and 10. Here, we use several independent theoretical models to infer constraints on the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galaxies during the epoch of reionization from these limits. We find that the IGM must have been heated above the adiabatic-cooling threshold by z ∼ 8, independent of uncertainties about IGM ionization and the radio background. Combining HERA limits with complementary observations constrains the spin temperature of the z ∼ 8 neutral IGM to 27 K 〈 T ¯ S 〉 630 K (2.3 K 〈 T ¯ S 〉 640 K) at 68% (95%) confidence. They therefore also place a lower bound on X-ray heating, a previously unconstrained aspects of early galaxies. For ex le, if the cosmic microwave background dominates the z ∼ 8 radio background, the new HERA limits imply that the first galaxies produced X-rays more efficiently than local ones. The z ∼ 10 limits require even earlier heating if dark-matter interactions cool the hydrogen gas. If an extra radio background is produced by galaxies, we rule out (at 95% confidence) the combination of high radio and low X-ray luminosities of L r , ν /SFR 4 × 10 24 W Hz −1 M ⊙ − 1 yr and L X /SFR 7.6 × 10 39 erg s −1 M ⊙ − 1 yr. The new HERA upper limits neither support nor disfavor a cosmological interpretation of the recent Experiment to Detect the Global EOR Signature (EDGES) measurement. The framework described here provides a foundation for the interpretation of future HERA results.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 28-06-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 08-2014
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 08-2011
Location: India
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Nipanjana Patra.