The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2025)
Impacts and Statistical Mitigation of Missing Data on the 21 cm Power Spectrum: A Case Study with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
- Kai-Feng Chen,
- Michael J. Wilensky,
- Adrian Liu,
- Joshua S. Dillon,
- Jacqueline N. Hewitt,
- Tyrone Adams,
- James E. Aguirre,
- Rushelle Baartman,
- Adam P. Beardsley,
- Lindsay M. Berkhout,
- Gianni Bernardi,
- Tashalee S. Billings,
- Judd D. Bowman,
- Philip Bull,
- Jacob Burba,
- Ruby Byrne,
- Steven Carey,
- Samir Choudhuri,
- Tyler Cox,
- David. R. DeBoer,
- Matt Dexter,
- Nico Eksteen,
- John Ely,
- Aaron Ewall-Wice,
- Steven R. Furlanetto,
- Kingsley Gale-Sides,
- Hugh Garsden,
- Bharat Kumar Gehlot,
- Adélie Gorce,
- Deepthi Gorthi,
- Ziyaad Halday,
- Bryna J. Hazelton,
- Jack Hickish,
- Daniel C. Jacobs,
- Alec Josaitis,
- Nicholas S. Kern,
- Joshua Kerrigan,
- Piyanat Kittiwisit,
- Matthew Kolopanis,
- Paul La Plante,
- Adam Lanman,
- Yin-Zhe Ma,
- David H. E. MacMahon,
- Lourence Malan,
- Cresshim Malgas,
- Keith Malgas,
- Bradley Marero,
- Zachary E. Martinot,
- Lisa McBride,
- Andrei Mesinger,
- Nicel Mohamed-Hinds,
- Mathakane Molewa,
- Miguel F. Morales,
- Steven G. Murray,
- Hans Nuwegeld,
- Aaron R. Parsons,
- Robert Pascua,
- Yuxiang Qin,
- Eleanor Rath,
- Nima Razavi-Ghods,
- James Robnett,
- Mario G. Santos,
- Peter Sims,
- Saurabh Singh,
- Dara Storer,
- Hilton Swarts,
- Jianrong Tan,
- Pieter van Wyngaarden,
- Haoxuan Zheng
Affiliations
- Kai-Feng Chen
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada
- Michael J. Wilensky
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada; Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester , Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Adrian Liu
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada
- Joshua S. Dillon
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Jacqueline N. Hewitt
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Tyrone Adams
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- James E. Aguirre
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Rushelle Baartman
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Adam P. Beardsley
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Winona State University , Winona, MN 55987, USA
- Lindsay M. Berkhout
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada
- Gianni Bernardi
- ORCiD
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa; INAF—Istituto di Radioastronomia , via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy; Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University , PO Box 94, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
- Tashalee S. Billings
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Judd D. Bowman
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Philip Bull
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester , Manchester M13 9PL, UK; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Cape , Cape Town 7535, South Africa
- Jacob Burba
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester , Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Ruby Byrne
- Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Steven Carey
- Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- Samir Choudhuri
- Centre for Strings , Gravitation and Cosmology, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
- Tyler Cox
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- David. R. DeBoer
- ORCiD
- Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Matt Dexter
- Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Nico Eksteen
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- John Ely
- Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- Aaron Ewall-Wice
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Steven R. Furlanetto
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Kingsley Gale-Sides
- Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- Hugh Garsden
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester , Manchester M13 9PL, UK
- Bharat Kumar Gehlot
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Adélie Gorce
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay , 91405 Orsay, France
- Deepthi Gorthi
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Ziyaad Halday
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Bryna J. Hazelton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA; eScience Institute, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Jack Hickish
- Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Daniel C. Jacobs
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Alec Josaitis
- Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- Nicholas S. Kern
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Joshua Kerrigan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Brown University , Providence, RI 02912, USA
- Piyanat Kittiwisit
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Cape , Cape Town 7535, South Africa
- Matthew Kolopanis
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Paul La Plante
- ORCiD
- Department of Computer Science, University of Nevada , Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA; Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada , Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
- Adam Lanman
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]
- Yin-Zhe Ma
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University , Matieland 7602, South Africa
- David H. E. MacMahon
- Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Lourence Malan
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Cresshim Malgas
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Keith Malgas
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Bradley Marero
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Zachary E. Martinot
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lisa McBride
- Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada; Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay , 91405 Orsay, France
- Andrei Mesinger
- ORCiD
- Scuola Normale Superiore , 56126 Pisa, PI, Italy
- Nicel Mohamed-Hinds
- Department of Physics, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Mathakane Molewa
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Miguel F. Morales
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Steven G. Murray
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA; Scuola Normale Superiore , 56126 Pisa, PI, Italy
- Hans Nuwegeld
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Aaron R. Parsons
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Robert Pascua
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Trottier Space Institute, McGill University , Montreal QC H3A 2T8, Canada
- Yuxiang Qin
- ORCiD
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
- Eleanor Rath
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Nima Razavi-Ghods
- Cavendish Astrophysics, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
- James Robnett
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , Socorro, NM 87801, USA
- Mario G. Santos
- ORCiD
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Cape , Cape Town 7535, South Africa
- Peter Sims
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Saurabh Singh
- Raman Research Institute , Sadashivanagar, Bangalore 560080, India
- Dara Storer
- Department of Physics, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Hilton Swarts
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Jianrong Tan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Pieter van Wyngaarden
- South African Radio Astronomy Observatory , Cape Town 7925, South Africa
- Haoxuan Zheng
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad9b91
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 979,
no. 2
p. 191
Abstract
The precise characterization and mitigation of systematic effects is one of the biggest roadblocks impeding the detection of the fluctuations of cosmological 21 cm signals. Missing data in radio cosmological experiments, often due to radio frequency interference (RFI), pose a particular challenge to power spectrum analysis as this could lead to the ringing of bright foreground modes in the Fourier space, heavily contaminating the cosmological signals. Here we show that the problem of missing data becomes even more arduous in the presence of systematic effects. Using a realistic numerical simulation, we demonstrate that partially flagged data combined with systematic effects can introduce significant foreground ringing. We show that such an effect can be mitigated through inpainting the missing data. We present a rigorous statistical framework that incorporates the process of inpainting missing data into a quadratic estimator of the 21 cm power spectrum. Under this framework, the uncertainties associated with our inpainting method and its impact on power spectrum statistics can be understood. These results are applied to the latest Phase II observations taken by the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array, forming a crucial component in power spectrum analyses as we move toward detecting 21 cm signals in the ever more noisy RFI environment.
Keywords
