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Validation of the HERA Phase I Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Power Spectrum Software Pipeline
Name
Aguirre_2022_ApJ_924_85.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.56 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8f1ab33bcf63b1be3a466274afe61ff7
Date Issued
January 1, 2022
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Citation
2022. "Validation of the HERA Phase I Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Power Spectrum Software Pipeline." The Astrophysical Journal, 924 (2).
Version
Final published version
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 2σ level) for k > 0.2h Mpc−1 for both bands and fields considered. Our input spectrum is intentionally amplified to enable a strong "detection" at k ∼ 0.2 h Mpc−1—at the level of ∼25σ—with foregrounds dominating on larger scales and thermal noise dominating at smaller scales. Our pipeline is able to detect this amplified input signal after suppressing foregrounds with a dynamic range (foreground to noise ratio) of ≳107. Our validation test suite uncovered several sources of scale-independent signal loss throughout the pipeline, whose amplitude 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.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.3847/1538-4357/ac32cd
