arXiv subjects

J. K. Chege

Publications and source records attributed to J. K. Chege.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The impact of lunar topography on the 21-cm power spectrum for grid-based arrays : Insights for the Dark-ages EXplorer (DEX)

The Dark Ages (DA) provides a crucial window into the physics of the infant Universe, with the 21-cm signal offering the only direct probe for mapping out the three-dimensional distribution of matter at this epoch. To measure this cosmological signal, the Dark-ages EXplorer (DEX) has been proposed as a compact, grid-based radio array on the lunar farside. The minimal design consists of a 32 $\times$ 32 array of 3-m dipole antennas, operating in the $7 - 50$ MHz band. A practical challenge on the lunar surface is that the antennas may get displaced from their intended positions due to deployment imprecisions and non-coplanarity arising from local surface undulations. We present, for the first time, an end-to-end simulation pipeline, called SPADE-21cm, that integrates a sky model with a DA 21-cm signal model simulated in the lunar frame and incorporating lunar topography data. We study the effects of both lateral (xy) and vertical (z) offsets on the two-dimensional power spectra across the $7 - 12$ MHz and $30 - 35$ MHz spectral windows, with tolerance thresholds derived only for the latter. Our results show that positional offsets bias the power spectrum by $10 - 30$ per cent relative to the expected 21-cm power spectrum during DA. Lateral offsets within $\sigma_{xy}/\lambda \lesssim 0.027$ (at 32.5 MHz) keep the fraction of Fourier modes with strong contamination (> 50 per cent of the signal) to less than 1 per cent, whereas vertical height offsets affect a larger fraction. This conclusion holds for the 21-cm window with $k_\parallel > 0.5$ $h$ cMpc$^{-1}$ over the range of $k_\perp = 0.003 - 0.009$ $h$ cMpc$^{-1}$.

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arXiv2025

Improved upper limits on the 21-cm signal power spectrum at $z=17.0$ and $z=20.3$ from an optimal field observed with NenuFAR

We report the deepest upper limits to date on the power spectrum of the 21-cm signal during the Cosmic Dawn (redshifts: $z>15$), using four nights of observations with NenuFAR. The limits are derived from two redshift bins, centred at $z=20.3$ and $z=17.0$, with integration times of 26.1 h and 23.6 h, from observations of an optimal target field chosen to minimise sidelobe leakage from bright sources. Our analysis incorporates improvements to the data processing pipeline, particularly in subtracting strong radio sources in the primary beam sidelobes and mitigating low-level radio frequency interference, yielding a 50-fold reduction in the excess variance compared to a previous analysis of the north celestial pole field. At $z=20.3$, we achieve a best $2σ$ upper limit of $Δ^{2}_{21}<4.6 \times 10^5 \, \textrm{mK}^{2}$ at $k=0.038$ $h\, \mathrm{cMpc}^{-1}$, while at $z=17.0$, the best limit is $Δ^{2}_{21}<5.0 \times 10^6 \, \textrm{mK}^{2}$ at $k=0.041$ $h\, \mathrm{cMpc}^{-1}$. These are the strongest constraints on the 21-cm power spectrum at the respective redshifts, with the limit at $z = 20.3$ being deeper by more than an order of magnitude over all previous Cosmic Dawn power spectrum limits. Comparison against simulated exotic 21-cm signals shows that while the $z=20.3$ limits begin to exclude the most extreme models predicting signals stronger than the EDGES detection, an order-of-magnitude improvement would constrain signals compatible with EDGES. A coherence analysis reveals that the excess variance is largely incoherent across nights for the $z=20.3$ redshift bin, suggesting that deeper integrations could yield significantly stronger constraints on the 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn.

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arXiv2025

Mitigating incoherent excess variance in high-redshift 21 cm observations with multi-output cross-Gaussian process regression

Systematic effects that limit the achievable sensitivity of current low-frequency radio telescopes to the 21 cm signal are among the foremost challenges in observational 21 cm cosmology. The standard approach to retrieving the 21 cm signal from radio interferometric data separates it from bright astrophysical foregrounds by exploiting their spectrally smooth nature, in contrast to the finer spectral structure of the 21 cm signal. Contaminants exhibiting rapid frequency fluctuations, on the other hand, are difficult to separate from the 21 cm signal using standard techniques, and the power from these contaminants contributes to low-level systematics that can limit our ability to detect the 21 cm signal. Many of these low-level systematics are incoherent across multiple nights of observation, resulting in an incoherent excess variance above the thermal noise sensitivity of the instrument. In this paper, we develop a method called cross-GPR (cross covariance Gaussian process regression) that exploits the incoherence of these systematics to separate them from the 21 cm signal, which remains coherent across multiple nights of observation. We first develop and demonstrate the technique on synthetic signals in a general setting, and then apply it to gridded interferometric visibility cubes. We perform realistic simulations of visibility cubes containing foregrounds, 21 cm signal, noise, and incoherent systematics. The simulations show that the method can successfully separate and subtract incoherent contributions to the excess variance, and its advantages over standard techniques become more evident when the spectral behavior of the contaminants resembles that of the 21 cm signal. Simulations performed on a variety of 21 cm signal shapes also reveal that the cross-GPR approach can subtract incoherent contributions to the excess variance, without suppressing the 21 cm signal.

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arXiv2025

Robust direction-dependent gain-calibration of beam-modelling errors far from the target field

Many astronomical questions require deep, wide-field observations at low radio frequencies. Phased arrays like LOFAR and SKA-low are designed for this, but have inherently unstable element gains, leading to time, frequency and direction-dependent gain errors. Precise direction-dependent calibration of observations is therefore key to reaching the highest possible dynamic range. Many tools for direction-dependent calibration utilise sky and beam models to infer gains. However, these calibration tools struggle with precision calibration for relatively bright (e.g. A-team) sources far from the beam centre. Therefore, the point-spread-function of these sources can potentially obscure a faint signal of interest. We show that, and why, the assumption of a smooth gain solution per station fails for realistic radio interferometers, and how this affects gain-calibration results. Subsequently, we introduce an improvement for smooth spectral gain constraints for direction-dependent gain-calibration algorithms, in which the level of regularisation is weighted by the expected station response to the sky model. We test this method using direction-dependent calibration method DDECal and physically-motivated beam modelling errors for LOFAR-HBA stations. The new method outperforms the standard method for various calibration settings near nulls in the beam, and matches the standard inverse-variance-weighted method's performance for the remainder of the data. The proposed method is especially effective for short baselines, both in visibility and image space. Improved direction-dependent gain-calibration is critical for future high-precision SKA-low observations, where higher sensitivity, increased antenna beam complexity, and mutual coupling call for better off-axis source subtraction, which may not be achieved through improved beam models alone.

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arXiv2025

First upper limits on the 21-cm signal power spectrum of neutral hydrogen at $z=9.16$ from the LOFAR 3C196 field

The redshifted 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) can potentially be detected using low-frequency radio instruments such as the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR). So far, LOFAR upper limits on the 21-cm signal power spectrum have been published using a single target field: the North Celestial Pole (NCP). In this work, we analyse and provide upper limits for the 3C196 field, observed by LOFAR, with a strong ${\approx}80\,$Jy source in the centre. This field offers advantages such as higher sensitivity due to zenith-crossing observations and reduced geostationary radio-frequency interference, but also poses challenges due to the presence of the bright central source. After constructing a wide-field sky model, we process a single 6-hour night of 3C196 observations using direction-independent and direction-dependent calibration, followed by a residual foreground subtraction with a machine learned Gaussian process regression (ML-GPR). A bias correction is necessary to account for signal suppression in the GPR step. Still, even after this correction, the upper limits are a factor of two lower than previous single-night NCP results, with a lowest $2\sigma$ upper limit of $(146.61\,\text{mK})^2$ at $z = 9.16$ and $k=0.078\,h\,\text{cMpc}^{-1}$ (with $\text{d}k/k\approx 0.3$). The results also reveal an excess power, different in behaviour from that observed in the NCP field, suggesting a potential residual foreground origin. In future work, the use of multiple nights of 3C196 observations combined with improvements to sky modelling and ML-GPR to avoid the need for bias correction should provide tighter constraints per unit observing time than the NCP.

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arXiv2025

Near-field imaging of local interference in radio interferometric data: Impact on the redshifted 21 cm power spectrum

Radio-frequency interference (RFI) is a major systematic limitation in radio astronomy, particularly for science cases requiring high sensitivity, such as 21 cm cosmology. Traditionally, RFI is dealt with by identifying its signature in the dynamic spectra of visibility data and flagging strongly affected regions. However, for RFI sources that do not occupy narrow regions in the time-frequency space, such as persistent local RFI, modeling these sources could be essential to mitigating their impact. This paper introduces two methods for detecting and characterizing local RFI sources from radio interferometric visibilities: matched filtering and maximum a posteriori (MAP) imaging. These algorithms use the spherical wave equation to construct three-dimensional near-field image cubes of RFI intensity from the visibilities. The matched filter algorithm can generate normalized maps by cross-correlating the expected contributions from RFI sources with the observed visibilities, while the MAP method performs a regularized inversion of the visibility equation in the near field. We developed a full polarization simulation framework for RFI and demonstrated the methods on simulated observations of local RFI sources. The stability, speed, and errors introduced by these algorithms were investigated, and, as a demonstration, the algorithms were applied to a subset of NenuFAR observations to perform spatial, spectral, and temporal characterization of two local RFI sources. We used simulations to assess the impact of local RFI on images, the uv plane, and cylindrical power spectra, and to quantify the level of bias introduced by the algorithms in order to understand their implications for the estimated 21 cm power spectrum with radio interferometers. The near-field imaging and simulation codes are publicly available in the Python library nfis.

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arXiv2025

Spectral modelling of Cygnus A between 110 and 250 MHz. Impact on the LOFAR 21-cm signal power spectrum

Studying the redshifted 21-cm signal from the the neutral hydrogen during the Epoch of Reionization and Cosmic Dawn is fundamental for understanding the physics of the early universe. One of the challenges that 21-cm experiments face is the contamination by bright foreground sources, such as Cygnus A, for which accurate spatial and spectral models are needed to minimise the residual contamination after their removal. In this work, we develop a new, high-resolution model of Cygnus A using Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) observations in the $110{-}250$ MHz range, improving upon previous models by incorporating physical spectral information through the forced-spectrum method during multi-frequency deconvolution. This approach addresses the limitations of earlier models by providing a more accurate representation of the complex structure and spectral behaviour of Cygnus A, including the spectral turnover in its brightest hotspots. The impact of this new model on the LOFAR 21-cm signal power spectrum is assessed by comparing it with both simulated and observed North Celestial Pole data sets. Significant improvements are observed in the cylindrical power spectrum along the Cygnus A direction, highlighting the importance of having spectrally accurate models of the brightest foreground sources. However, this improvement is washed out in the spherical power spectrum, where we measure differences of a few hundred mK at $k<0.63\,h\,\text{cMpc}^{-1}$, but not statistically significant. The results suggest that other systematic effects must be mitigated before a substantial impact on 21-cm power spectrum can be achieved.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Beyond the horizon: Quantifying the full sky foreground wedge in the cylindrical power spectrum

One of the main obstacles preventing the detection of the redshifted 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen in the early Universe is the astrophysical foreground emission, which is several orders of magnitude brighter than the signal. The foregrounds, due to their smooth spectra, are expected to predominantly occupy a region in the cylindrical power spectrum known as the foreground wedge. However, the conventional equations describing the extent of the foreground wedge are derived under a flat-sky approximation. This assumption breaks down for tracking wide-field instruments, thus rendering these equations inapplicable in these situations. In this paper, we derive equations for the full sky foreground wedge and show that the foregrounds can potentially extend far beyond what the conventional equations suggest. We also derive the equations that describe a specific bright source in the cylindrical power spectrum space. The validity of both sets of equations is tested against numerical simulations. Many current and upcoming interferometers (e.g., LOFAR, NenuFAR, MWA, SKA) are wide-field phase-tracking instruments. These equations give us new insights into the nature of foreground contamination in the cylindrical power spectra estimated using wide-field instruments. Additionally, they allow us to accurately associate features in the power spectrum to foregrounds or instrumental effects. The equations are also important for correctly selecting the "EoR window" for foreground avoidance analyses, and for planning 21-cm observations. In future analyses, it is recommended to use these updated horizon lines to indicate the foreground wedge in the cylindrical power spectrum accurately. The new equations for generating the updated wedge lines are made available in a Python library, pslines.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Ionospheric contributions to the excess power in high-redshift 21-cm power-spectrum observations with LOFAR

The turbulent ionosphere causes phase shifts to incoming radio waves on a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. When an interferometer is not sufficiently calibrated for the direction-dependent ionospheric effects, the time-varying phase shifts can cause the signal to decorrelate. The ionosphere's influence over various spatiotemporal scales introduces a baseline-dependent effect on the interferometric array. We study the impact of baseline-dependent decorrelation on high-redshift observations with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). Datasets with a range of ionospheric corruptions are simulated using a thin-screen ionosphere model, and calibrated using the state-of-the-art LOFAR Epoch of Reionisation pipeline. For the first time ever, we show the ionospheric impact on various stages of the calibration process including an analysis of the transfer of gain errors from longer to shorter baselines using realistic end-to-end simulations. We find that direction-dependent calibration for source subtraction leaves excess power of up to two orders of magnitude above the thermal noise at the largest spectral scales in the cylindrically averaged auto-power spectrum under normal ionospheric conditions. However, we demonstrate that this excess power can be removed through Gaussian process regression, leaving no excess power above the ten per cent level for a $5~$km diffractive scale. We conclude that ionospheric errors, in the absence of interactions with other aggravating effects, do not constitute a dominant component in the excess power observed in LOFAR Epoch of Reionisation observations of the North Celestial Pole. Future work should therefore focus on less spectrally smooth effects, such as beam modelling errors.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

The impact of lossy data compression on the power spectrum of the high redshift 21-cm signal with LOFAR

Current radio interferometers output multi-petabyte-scale volumes of data per year making the storage, transfer, and processing of this data a sizeable challenge. This challenge is expected to grow with the next-generation telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array. Lossy compression of interferometric data post-correlation can abate this challenge. However, since high-redshift 21-cm studies impose strict precision requirements, the impact of such lossy data compression on the 21-cm signal power spectrum statistic should be understood. We apply Dysco visibility compression, a technique to normalize and quantize specifically designed for radio interferometric data. We establish the level of the compression noise in the power spectrum in comparison to the thermal noise as well as its coherency behavior. Finally, for optimal compression results, we compare the compression noise obtained from different compression settings to a nominal 21-cm signal power. From a single night of observation, we find that the noise introduced due to the compression is more than five orders of magnitude lower than the thermal noise level in the power spectrum. The noise does not affect calibration. The compression noise shows no correlation with the sky signal and has no measurable coherent component. The level of compression error in the power spectrum ultimately depends on the compression settings. Dysco visibility compression is found to be of insignificant concern for 21-cm power spectrum studies. Hence, data volumes can be safely reduced by factors of $\sim 4$ and with insignificant bias to the final power spectrum. Data from SKA-low will likely be compressible by the same factor as LOFAR, owing to the similarities of the two instruments. The same technique can be used to compress data from other telescopes, but a small adjustment of the compression parameters might be required.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

The MWA Long Baseline Epoch of Reionisation Survey: I. Improved Source Catalogue for the EoR 0 field

One of the principal systematic constraints on the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) experiment is the accuracy of the foreground calibration model. Recent results have shown that highly accurate models of extended foreground sources, and including models for sources in both the primary beam and its sidelobes, are necessary for reducing foreground power. To improve the accuracy of the source models for the EoR fields observed by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), we conducted the MWA Long Baseline Epoch of Reionisation Survey (LoBES). This survey consists of multi-frequency observations of the main MWA EoR fields and their eight neighbouring fields using the MWA Phase II extended array. We present the results of the first half of this survey centred on the MWA EoR0 observing field (centred at RA(J2000) 0 h, Dec(J2000) -27 deg). This half of the survey covers an area of 3069 degrees$^2$, with an average rms of 2.1 mJy beam$^{-1}$. The resulting catalogue contains a total of 80824 sources, with 16 separate spectral measurements between 100 and 230 MHz, and spectral modelling for 78$\%$ of these sources. Over this region we estimate that the catalogue is 90$\%$ complete at 32 mJy, and 70$\%$ complete at 10.5~mJy. The overall normalised source counts are found to be in good agreement with previous low-frequency surveys at similar sensitivities. Testing the performance of the new source models we measure lower residual rms values for peeled sources, particularly for extended sources, in a set of MWA Phase I data. The 2-dimensional power spectrum of these data residuals also show improvement on small angular scales -- consistent with the better angular resolution of the LoBES catalogue. It is clear that the LoBES sky models improve upon the current sky model used by the Australian MWA EoR group for the EoR0 field.

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