Parametrizations of the 21-cm global signal and parameter estimation from single-dipole experiments. Issue 4 (1st December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harker, Geraint J. A.; Mirocha, Jordan; Burns, Jack O.; Pritchard, Jonathan R.
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 455:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 3829
• Page End: 3840
• Publication Date: 2015-12-01
• Subjects: methods: statistical -- cosmology: theory -- dark ages, reionization, first stars -- diffuse radiation -- radio lines: general; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2630
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

Abstract: One approach to extracting the global 21-cm signal from total-power measurements at low radio frequencies is to parametrize the different contributions to the data and then fit for these parameters. We examine parametrizations of the 21-cm signal itself, and propose one based on modelling the Ly α background, intergalactic medium temperature and hydrogen ionized fraction using tanh functions. This captures the shape of the signal from a physical modelling code better than an earlier parametrization based on interpolating between maxima and minima of the signal, and imposes a greater level of physical plausibility. This allows less biased constraints on the turning points of the signal, even though these are not explicitly fit for. Biases can also be alleviated by discarding information which is less robustly described by the parametrization, for example by ignoring detailed shape information coming from the covariances between turning points or from the high-frequency parts of the signal, or by marginalizing over the high-frequency parts of the signal by fitting a more complex foreground model. The fits are sufficiently accurate to be usable for experiments gathering 1000 h of data, though in this case it may be important to choose observing windows which do not include the brightest areas of the foregrounds. Our assumption of pointed, single-antenna observations and very broad-band fitting makes these results particularly applicable to experiments such as the Dark Ages Radio Explorer, which would study the global 21-cm signal from the clean environment of a low lunar orbit, taking data from the far side.