Journal article
First Results from HERA Phase I: Upper Limits on the Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Power Spectrum
Z Abdurashidova, JE Aguirre, P Alexander, ZS Ali, Y Balfour, AP Beardsley, G Bernardi, TS Billings, JD Bowman, RF Bradley, P Bull, J Burba, S Carey, CL Carilli, C Cheng, DR Deboer, M Dexter, E De Lera Acedo, T Dibblee-Barkman, JS Dillon Show all
Astrophysical Journal | Published : 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 ∼109 with respect to the peak foreground power. This yields a 95% confidence upper limit on the 21 cm power spectrum of 212≤(30.76)2mK2 at k = 0.192 h Mpc-1 at z = 7.9, and also 212≤(95.74)2mK2 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 systematic..
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Grants
Awarded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Funding Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. 1636646 and 1836019 and institutional support from the HERA collaboration partners. This research is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. HERA is hosted by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation. Parts of this research were supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. G. Bernardi acknowledges funding from the INAF PRIN-SKA 2017 project 1.05.01.88.04 (FORECaST), support from the Ministero degli Affari Esteri della Cooperazione Internazionale-Direzione Generale per la Promozione del Sistema Paese Progetto di Grande Rilevanza ZA18GR02 and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant No. 113121) as part of the ISARP RADIOSKY2020 Joint Research Scheme, from the Royal Society and the Newton Fund under grant NA150184 and from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant No. 103424). P. Bull acknowledges funding for part of this research from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 948764), and from STFC grant ST/T000341/1. E. de Lera Acedo acknowledges the funding support of the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council SKA grant. J.S. Dillon gratefully acknowledges the support of the NSF AAPF award #1701536. N. Kern acknowledges support from the MIT Pappalardo fellowship. A. Liu acknowledges support from the New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration grant program, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Azrieli Global Scholars program, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant and a Discovery Launch Supplement, the Sloan Research Fellowship, and the William Dawson Scholarship at McGill. We gratefully acknowledge an anonymous referee whose feedback improved the clarity of this work.