arXiv subjects

Alkistis Pourtsidou

Publications and source records attributed to Alkistis Pourtsidou.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Cosmology with the EFTofLSS and BOSS: dark energy constraints and a note on priors

We analyse the BOSS DR12 galaxy power spectrum data jointly with BAO data for three models of dark energy. We use recent measurements using a windowless estimator, and an independent and fast pipeline based on EFTofLSS implemented via the FAST-PT algorithm to compute the redshift-space loop corrections. We accelerate our analysis by using the BACCO linear emulator instead of a Boltzmann solver. We perform two sets of analyses: one with $3σ$ Planck priors on $A_s$ and $n_s$, and another that is CMB-free, without such priors. Firstly, we study $Λ$CDM, reproducing previous results obtained with the same estimator. We find a low value of $A_s$ in the CMB-free case, in agreement with many previous full-shape analyses of the BOSS data. We then study $w$CDM, finding a lower value of the amplitude in the CMB-free run, coupled with a preference for phantom dark energy with $w=-1.17^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$, again in broad agreement with previous results. Finally, we investigate the dark scattering model, which we label $wA$CDM. In the CMB-free analysis, we find a large degeneracy between the interaction strength $A$ and the amplitude $A_s$, hampering measurements of those parameters. On the contrary, in our run with a CMB prior, we are able to constrain the dark energy parameters to be $w=-0.972^{+0.036}_{-0.029}$ and $A = 3.9^{+3.2}_{-3.7}$, which show a 1$σ$ hint of interacting dark energy. This is the first measurement of this parameter and demonstrates the ability of this model to alleviate the $σ_8$ tension. Our analysis can be used as a guide for any model with scale-independent growth. Finally, we study the dependence of the results on the priors of the nuisance parameters and find these priors to be informative, with their broadening creating shifts in the contours. We argue for an in depth study of this issue, which can affect current and forthcoming analyses of LSS data.

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arXiv2023

Interferometric HI intensity mapping: perturbation theory predictions and foreground removal effects

We provide perturbation theory predictions for the HI intensity mapping power spectrum multipoles using the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS), which should allow us to constrain cosmological parameters exploiting mildly nonlinear scales. Assuming survey specifications typical of proposed interferometric HI intensity mapping experiments like CHORD and PUMA, and realistic ranges of validity for the perturbation theory modelling, we run mock full shape MCMC analyses at a redshift bin centred at $z=0.5$, and compare with Stage-IV optical galaxy surveys. We include the impact of 21cm foreground removal using simulations-based prescriptions, and quantify the effects on the precision and accuracy of the parameter estimation. We vary 11 parameters in total: 3 cosmological parameters, 7 bias and counterterms parameters, and the HI brightness temperature. Amongst them, the 4 parameters of interest are: the cold dark matter density, $ω_{\rm c}$, the Hubble parameter, $h$, the primordial amplitude of the power spectrum, $A_{\rm s}$, and the linear HI bias, $b_1$. For the best case scenario, we obtain unbiased constraints on all parameters with $<3\%$ errors at $68\%$ confidence level. When we include the foreground removal effects, the parameter estimation becomes strongly biased for $ω_{\rm c}, h$, and $b_1$, while $A_{\rm s}$ is less biased ($< 2σ$). We find that scale cuts $k_{\rm min} \geq 0.03 \, h/{\mathrm{Mpc}}$ are required to return accurate estimates for $ω_{\rm c}$ and $h$, at the price of a decrease in the precision, while $b_1$ remains strongly biased. We comment on the implications of these results for real data analyses.

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arXiv2022

Unveiling the Universe with Emerging Cosmological Probes

The detection of the accelerated expansion of the Universe has been one of the major breakthroughs in modern cosmology. Several cosmological probes (CMB, SNe Ia, BAO) have been studied in depth to better understand the nature of the mechanism driving this acceleration, and they are being currently pushed to their limits, obtaining remarkable constraints that allowed us to shape the standard cosmological model. In parallel to that, however, the percent precision achieved has recently revealed apparent tensions between measurements obtained from different methods. These are either indicating some unaccounted systematic effects, or are pointing toward new physics. Following the development of CMB, SNe, and BAO cosmology, it is critical to extend our selection of cosmological probes. Novel probes can be exploited to validate results, control or mitigate systematic effects, and, most importantly, to increase the accuracy and robustness of our results. This review is meant to provide a state-of-art benchmark of the latest advances in emerging beyond-standard cosmological probes. We present how several different methods can become a key resource for observational cosmology. In particular, we review cosmic chronometers, quasars, gamma-ray bursts, standard sirens, lensing time-delay with galaxies and clusters, cosmic voids, neutral hydrogen intensity mapping, surface brightness fluctuations, stellar ages of the oldest objects, secular redshift drift, and clustering of standard candles. The review describes the method, systematics, and results of each probe in a homogeneous way, giving the reader a clear picture of the available innovative methods that have been introduced in recent years and how to apply them. The review also discusses the potential synergies and complementarities between the various probes, exploring how they will contribute to the future of modern cosmology.

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arXiv2022

HI intensity mapping with MeerKAT: power spectrum detection in cross-correlation with WiggleZ galaxies

We present a detection of correlated clustering between MeerKAT radio intensity maps and galaxies from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. We find a $7.7σ$ detection of the cross-correlation power spectrum, the amplitude of which is proportional to the product of the HI density fraction ($Ω_{\rm HI}$), HI bias ($b_{\rm HI}$) and the cross-correlation coefficient ($r$). We therefore obtain the constraint $Ω_{\rm HI} b_{\rm HI} r\,{=}\,[0.86\,{\pm}\,0.10\,({\rm stat})\,{\pm}\,0.12\,({\rm sys})]\,{\times}\,10^{-3}$, at an effective scale of $k_{\rm eff}\,{\sim}\,0.13\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$. The intensity maps were obtained from a pilot survey with the MeerKAT telescope, a 64-dish pathfinder array to the SKA Observatory (SKAO). The data were collected from 10.5 hours of observations using MeerKAT's L-band receivers over six nights covering the 11hr field of WiggleZ, in the frequency range $1015-973\,{\rm MHz}$ (0.400$\,{<}\,z\,{<}\,$0.459 in redshift). This detection is the first practical demonstration of the multi-dish auto-correlation intensity mapping technique for cosmology. This marks an important milestone in the roadmap for the cosmology science case with the full SKAO.

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arXiv2022

Momentum transfer models of interacting dark energy

We consider two models of interacting dark energy, both of which interact only through momentum exchange. One is a phenomenological one-parameter extension to $w$CDM, and the other is a coupled quintessence model described by a Lagrangian formalism. Using a variety of high and low redshift data sets, we perform a global fitting of cosmological parameters and compare to $Λ$CDM, uncoupled quintessence, and $w$CDM. We find that the models are competitive with $Λ$CDM, even obtaining a better fit when certain data sets are included.

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arXiv2022

On the road to percent accuracy VI: the nonlinear power spectrum for interacting dark energy with baryonic feedback and massive neutrinos

Understanding nonlinear structure formation is crucial for fully exploring the data generated by stage IV surveys, requiring accurate modelling of the power spectrum. This is challenging for deviations from $Λ$CDM, but we must ensure that alternatives are well tested, to avoid false detections. We present an extension of the halo model reaction framework for interacting dark energy. We modify the halo model including the additional force present in the Dark Scattering model and implement it into ReACT. The reaction is combined with a pseudo spectrum from EuclidEmulator2 and compared to N-body simulations. Using standard mass function and concentration-mass relation, we find predictions to be 1 % accurate at $z=0$ up to $k=0.8~h/{\rm Mpc}$ for the largest interaction strength tested ($ξ=50$ b/GeV), improving to $2~h/{\rm Mpc}$ at $z=1$. For smaller interaction strength ($10$ b/GeV), we find 1 % agreement at $z=1$ up to scales above $3.5~h/{\rm Mpc}$, being close to $1~h/{\rm Mpc}$ at $z=0$. Finally, we improve our predictions with the inclusion of baryonic feedback and massive neutrinos and study degeneracies between the effects of these contributions and those of the interaction. Limiting the scales to where our modelling is 1 % accurate, we find a degeneracy between the interaction and feedback, but not with massive neutrinos. We expect the degeneracy with feedback to be resolvable by including smaller scales. This work represents the first analytical tool for calculating the nonlinear spectrum for interacting dark energy models.

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arXiv2021

HI constraints from the cross-correlation of eBOSS galaxies and Green Bank Telescope intensity maps

We present the joint analysis of Neutral Hydrogen (HI) Intensity Mapping observations with three galaxy samples: the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) and Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) samples from the eBOSS survey, and the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey sample. The HI intensity maps are Green Bank Telescope observations of the redshifted 21cm emission on 100deg2 covering the redshift range $0.6<z<1.0$. We process the data by separating and removing the foregrounds with FastICA, and construct a transfer function to correct for the effects of foreground removal on the HI signal. We cross-correlate the cleaned HI data with the galaxy samples and study the overall amplitude as well as the scale-dependence of the power spectrum. We also qualitatively compare our findings with the predictions by a semi-analytic galaxy evolution simulation. The cross-correlations constrain the quantity $Ω_{HI} b_{HI} r_{{HI},{opt}}$ at an effective scale $k_{eff}$, where $Ω_{HI}$ is the HI density fraction, $b_{HI}$ is the HI bias, and $r_{{HI},{opt}}$ the galaxy-hydrogen correlation coefficient, which is dependent on the HI content of the optical galaxy sample. At $k_{eff}=0.31 \, h/{Mpc}$ we find $Ω_{HI} b_{HI} r_{{HI},{Wig}} = [0.58 \pm 0.09 \, {(stat) \pm 0.05 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-WiggleZ, $Ω_{HI} b_{HI} r_{HI,{ELG}} = [0.40 \pm 0.09 \, {(stat) \pm 0.04 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-ELG, and $Ω_{HI} b_{HI} r_{{HI},{LRG}} = [0.35 \pm 0.08 \, {(stat) \pm 0.03 \, {(sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$ for GBT-LRG, at $z\simeq 0.8$. We also report results at $k_{eff}=0.24 \, h/{Mpc}$ and $k_{eff}=0.48 \, h/{Mpc}$. With little information on HI parameters beyond our local Universe, these are amongst the most precise constraints on neutral hydrogen density fluctuations in an underexplored redshift range.

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arXiv2021

Contributions from primordial non-Gaussianity and General Relativity to the galaxy power spectrum

We compute the real space galaxy power spectrum, including the leading order effects of General Relativity and primordial non-Gaussianity from the $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ and $g_{\mathrm{NL}}$ parameters. Such contributions come from the one-loop matter power spectrum terms dominant at large scales, and from the factors of the non-linear bias parameter $b_{\mathrm{NL}}$ (akin to the Newtonian $b_ϕ$). We assess the detectability of these contributions in Stage-IV surveys. In particular, we note that specific values of the bias parameter may erase the primordial and relativistic contributions to the configuration space power spectrum.

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arXiv2021

SKAO HI Intensity Mapping: Blind Foreground Subtraction Challenge

Neutral Hydrogen Intensity Mapping (HI IM) surveys will be a powerful new probe of cosmology. However, strong astrophysical foregrounds contaminate the signal and their coupling with instrumental systematics further increases the data cleaning complexity. In this work, we simulate a realistic single-dish HI IM survey of a $5000$~deg$^2$ patch in the $950 - 1400$ MHz range, with both the MID telescope of the SKA Observatory (SKAO) and MeerKAT, its precursor. We include a state-of-the-art HI simulations and explore different foreground models and instrumental effects such as non-homogeneous thermal noise and beam side-lobes. We perform the first Blind Foreground Subtraction Challenge for HI IM on these synthetic data-cubes, aiming to characterise the performance of available foreground cleaning methods with no prior knowledge of the sky components and noise level. Nine foreground cleaning pipelines joined the Challenge, based on statistical source separation algorithms, blind polynomial fitting, and an astrophysical-informed parametric fit to foregrounds. We devise metrics to compare the pipeline performances quantitatively. In general, they can recover the input maps' 2-point statistics within 20 per cent in the range of scales least affected by the telescope beam. However, spurious artefacts appear in the cleaned maps due to interactions between the foreground structure and the beam side-lobes. We conclude that it is fundamental to develop accurate beam deconvolution algorithms and test data post-processing steps carefully before cleaning. This study was performed as part of SKAO preparatory work by the HI IM Focus Group of the SKA Cosmology Science Working Group.

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arXiv2021

Gaussian Process Regression for foreground removal in HI intensity mapping experiments

We apply for the first time Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) as a foreground removal technique in the context of single-dish, low redshift HI intensity mapping, and present an open-source Python toolkit for doing so. We use MeerKAT and SKA1-MID-like simulations of 21cm foregrounds (including polarisation leakage), HI cosmological signal and instrumental noise. We find that it is possible to use GPR as a foreground removal technique in this context, and that it is better suited in some cases to recover the HI power spectrum than Principal Component Analysis (PCA), especially on small scales. GPR is especially good at recovering the radial power spectrum, outperforming PCA when considering the full bandwidth of our data. Both methods are worse at recovering the transverse power spectrum, since they rely on frequency-only covariance information. When halving our data along frequency, we find that GPR performs better in the low frequency range, where foregrounds are brighter. It performs worse than PCA when frequency channels are missing, to emulate RFI flagging. We conclude that GPR is an excellent foreground removal option for the case of single-dish, low redshift HI intensity mapping in the absence of missing frequency channels. Our Python toolkit gpr4im and the data used in this analysis are publicly available on GitHub.

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arXiv2021

On the road to percent accuracy V: the non-linear power spectrum beyond $Λ$CDM with massive neutrinos and baryonic feedback

In the context of forthcoming galaxy surveys, to ensure unbiased constraints on cosmology and gravity when using non-linear structure information, percent-level accuracy is required when modelling the power spectrum. This calls for frameworks that can accurately capture the relevant physical effects, while allowing for deviations from $Λ$CDM. Massive neutrino and baryonic physics are two of the most relevant such effects. We present an integration of the halo model reaction frameworks for massive neutrinos and beyond-$Λ$CDM cosmologies. The integrated halo model reaction, combined with a pseudo power spectrum modelled by HMCode2020 is then compared against $N$-body simulations that include both massive neutrinos and an $f(R)$ modification to gravity. We find that the framework is 4% accurate down to at least $k\approx 3 \, h/{\rm Mpc}$ for a modification to gravity of $|f_{\rm R0}|\leq 10^{-5}$ and for the total neutrino mass $M_ν\equiv \sum m_ν\leq 0.15$ eV. We also find that the framework is 4% consistent with EuclidEmulator2 as well as the Bacco emulator for \B{most of the considered} $νw$CDM cosmologies down to at least $k \approx 3 \, h$/Mpc. Finally, we compare against hydrodynamical simulations employing HMCode2020's baryonic feedback modelling on top of the halo model reaction. For $νΛ$CDM cosmologies we find 2% accuracy for $M_ν\leq 0.48$eV down to at least $k\approx 5h$/Mpc. Similar accuracy is found when comparing to $νw$CDM hydrodynamical simulations with $M_ν= 0.06$eV. This offers the first non-linear, theoretically general means of accurately including massive neutrinos for beyond-$Λ$CDM cosmologies, and further suggests that baryonic, massive neutrino and dark energy physics can be reliably modelled independently.

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arXiv2021

Interacting dark energy from redshift-space galaxy clustering

Interacting dark energy models have been proposed as attractive alternatives to $Λ$CDM. Forthcoming Stage-IV galaxy clustering surveys will constrain these models, but they require accurate modelling of the galaxy power spectrum multipoles on mildly non-linear scales. In this work we consider a dark scattering model with a simple 1-parameter extension to $w$CDM - adding only $A$, which describes a pure momentum exchange between dark energy and dark matter. We then provide a comprehensive comparison of three approaches of modeling non-linearities, while including the effects of this dark sector coupling. We base our modeling of non-linearities on the two most popular perturbation theory approaches: TNS and EFTofLSS. To test the validity and precision of the modelling, we perform an MCMC analysis using simulated data corresponding to a $Λ$CDM fiducial cosmology and Stage-IV surveys specifications in two redshift bins, $z=0.5$ and $z=1$. We find the most complex EFTofLSS-based model studied to be better suited at both, describing the mock data up to smaller scales, and extracting the most information. Using this model, we forecast uncertainties on the dark energy equation of state, $w$, and on the interaction parameter, $A$, finding $σ_w=0.06$ and $σ_A=1.1$ b/GeV for the analysis at $z=0.5$ and $σ_w=0.06$ and $σ_A=2.0$ b/GeV for the analysis at $z=1$. In addition, we show that a false detection of exotic dark energy up to 3$σ$ would occur should the non-linear modelling be incorrect, demonstrating the importance of the validation stage for accurate interpretation of measurements.

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arXiv2021

The HI intensity mapping bispectrum including observational effects

The bispectrum is a 3-point statistic with the potential to provide additional information beyond power spectra analyses of survey datasets. Radio telescopes which broadly survey the 21cm emission from neutral hydrogen (HI) are a promising way to probe LSS and in this work we present an investigation into the HI intensity mapping (IM) bispectrum using simulations. We present a model of the redshift space HI IM bispectrum including observational effects from the radio telescope beam and 21cm foreground contamination. We validate our modelling prescriptions with measurements from robust IM simulations, inclusive of these observational effects. Our foreground simulations include polarisation leakage, on which we use a Principal Component Analysis cleaning method. We also investigate the effects from a non-Gaussian beam including side-lobes. For a MeerKAT-like single-dish IM survey at $z=0.39$, we find that foreground removal causes a 8% reduction in the equilateral bispectrum's signal-to-noise ratio $S/N$, whereas the beam reduces it by 62%. We find our models perform well, generally providing $χ^2_\text{dof}\sim 1$, indicating a good fit to the data. Whilst our focus is on post-reionisation, single-dish IM, our modelling of observational effects, especially foreground removal, can also be relevant to interferometers and reionisation studies.

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arXiv2021

The RSD Sorting Hat: Unmixing Radial Scales in Projection

Future data sets will enable cross-correlations between redshift space distortions (RSD) and weak lensing (WL). While photometric lensing and clustering cross-correlations have provided some of the tightest cosmological constraints to date, it is not well understood how to optimally perform similar RSD/WL joint analyses in a lossless way. RSD is typically measured in $3D$ redshift space, but WL is inherently a projected signal, making angular statistics a natural choice for the combined analysis. Thus, we determine the amount of RSD information that can be extracted using projected statistics. Specifically we perform a Fisher analysis to forecast constraints and model bias comparing two different Fingers-of-God (FoG) models using both, the $3D$ power spectrum, $P(k, μ)$, and tomographic $C(\ell)$. We find that because naïve tomographic projection mixes large scales with poorly modelled nonlinear radial modes, it does not provide competitive constraints to the $3D$ RSD power spectrum without the model bias becoming unacceptably large. This is true even in the limit of narrow tomographic bins. In light of this we propose a new radial weighting scheme which unmixes radial RSD scales in projection yielding competitive constraints to the $3D$ RSD power spectrum, while keeping the model bias small. This work lays the groundwork for optimal joint analyses of RSD and cosmic shear.

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arXiv2021

HI intensity mapping with MeerKAT: Calibration pipeline for multi-dish autocorrelation observations

While most purpose-built 21cm intensity mapping experiments are close-packed interferometer arrays, general-purpose dish arrays should also be capable of measuring the cosmological 21cm signal. This can be achieved most efficiently if the array is used as a collection of scanning autocorrelation dishes rather than as an interferometer. As a first step towards demonstrating the feasibility of this observing strategy, we show that we are able to successfully calibrate dual-polarisation autocorrelation data from 64 MeerKAT dishes in the L-band (856-1712 MHz, 4096 channels), with 10.5 hours of data retained from six nights of observing. We describe our calibration pipeline, which is based on multi-level RFI flagging, periodic noise diode injection to stabilise gain drifts and an absolute calibration based on a multi-component sky model. We show that it is sufficiently accurate to recover maps of diffuse celestial emission and point sources over a 10 deg x 30 deg patch of the sky overlapping with the WiggleZ 11hr field. The reconstructed maps have a good level of consistency between per-dish maps and external datasets, with the estimated thermal noise limited to 1.4 x the theoretical noise level (~ 2 mK). The residual maps have rms amplitudes below 0.1 K, corresponding to <1% of the model temperature. The reconstructed Galactic HI intensity map shows excellent agreement with the Effelsberg-Bonn HI Survey, and the flux of the radio galaxy 4C+03.18 is recovered to within 3.6%, which demonstrates that the autocorrelation can be successfully calibrated to give the zero-spacing flux and potentially help in the imaging of MeerKAT interferometric data. Our results provide a positive indication towards the feasibility of using MeerKAT and the future SKA to measure the HI intensity mapping signal and probe cosmology on degree scales and above.

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arXiv2021

21cm foregrounds and polarization leakage: a user's guide on cleaning and mitigation strategies

The success of HI intensity mapping is largely dependent on how well 21cm foreground contamination can be controlled. In order to progress our understanding further, we present a range of simulated foreground data from four different $\sim3000$\,deg$^2$ sky regions, with and without effects from polarization leakage. Combining these with underlying cosmological HI simulations creates a range of single-dish intensity mapping test cases that require different foreground treatments. This allows us to conduct the most generalized study to date into 21cm foregrounds and their cleaning techniques for the post-reionization era. We first provide a pedagogical review of the most commonly used blind foreground removal techniques (PCA/SVD, FASTICA, GMCA). We also trial a non-blind parametric fitting technique and discuss potential hybridization of methods. We highlight the similarities and differences in these techniques finding that the blind methods produce near equivalent results, and we explain the fundamental reasons for this. The simulations allow an exact decomposition of the resulting cleaned data and we analyse the contribution from foreground residuals. Our results demonstrate that polarized foreground residuals should be generally subdominant to HI on small scales ($k\gtrsim0.1\,h\,\text{Mpc}^{-1}$). However, on larger scales, results are more region dependent. In some cases, aggressive cleans severely damp HI power but still leave dominant foreground residuals. We also demonstrate the gain from cross-correlations with optical galaxy surveys, where extreme levels of residual foregrounds can be circumvented. However, these residuals still contribute to errors and we discuss the optimal balance between over- and under-cleaning.

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arXiv2021

Power spectrum multipole expansion for HI intensity mapping experiments: unbiased parameter estimation

We assess the performance of the multipole expansion formalism in the case of single-dish HI intensity mapping, including instrumental and foreground removal effects. This formalism is used to provide MCMC forecasts for a range of HI and cosmological parameters, including redshift space distortions and the Alcock-Paczynski effect. We first determine the range of validity of our power spectrum modelling by fitting to simulation data, concentrating on the monopole, quadrupole, and hexadecapole contributions. We then show that foreground subtraction effects can lead to severe biases in the determination of cosmological parameters, in particular the parameters relating to the transverse BAO rescaling, the growth rate and the HI bias ($α_\perp$, $\overline{T}_\text{HI} fσ_8$, and $\overline{T}_\text{HI} b_\text{HI} σ_8$, respectively). We attempt to account for these biases by constructing a 2-parameter foreground modelling prescription, and find that our prescription leads to unbiased parameter estimation at the expense of increasing the estimated uncertainties on cosmological parameters. In addition, we confirm that instrumental and foreground removal effects significantly impact the theoretical covariance matrix, and cause the covariance between different multipoles to become non-negligible. Finally, we show the effect of including higher-order multipoles in our analysis, and how these can be used to investigate the presence of instrumental and systematic effects in HI intensity mapping data.

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arXiv2020

The degeneracy between primordial non-Gaussianity and foregrounds in 21cm intensity mapping experiments

Potential evidence for primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) is expected to lie in the largest scales mapped by cosmological surveys. Forthcoming 21cm intensity mapping experiments will aim to probe these scales by surveying neutral hydrogen (HI) within galaxies. However, foreground signals dominate the faint 21cm emission, meaning foreground cleaning is required to recover the cosmological signal. The effect this has is to damp the HI power spectrum on the largest scales, especially along the line-of-sight. Whilst there is agreement that this contamination is potentially problematic for probing PNG, it is yet to be fully explored and quantified. In this work we carry out the first forecasts on $f_\text{NL}$ that incorporate simulated foreground maps that are removed using techniques employed in real data. Using an MCMC analysis, we demonstrate that foreground cleaned data recovers hugely biased values ($f_\text{NL} = -102.1_{-7.96}^{+8.39}$ [68% CL]) on our $f_\text{NL}=0$ fiducial input. Introducing a model with fixed parameters for the foreground contamination allows us to recover unbiased results ($f_\text{NL} = -2.94_{-11.9}^{+11.4}$). However, it is not clear that we will have sufficient understanding of foreground contamination to allow for such rigid models. Treating the main parameter $k_\parallel^\text{FG}$ in our foreground model as a nuisance parameter and marginalizing over it, still recovers unbiased results but at the expense of much larger errors ($f_\text{NL} = 0.75^{+40.2}_{-44.5}$), that can only be reduced by imposing the Planck 2018 prior. Our results show that significant progress on understanding and controlling foreground removal effects is necessary in order to study PNG with HI intensity mapping.

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