Sky reconstruction from transit visibilities: PAON-4 and Tianlai Dish Array

Abstract

The spherical harmonics $m$-mode decomposition is a powerful sky map reconstruction method suitable for radio interferometers operating in transit mode. It can be applied to various configurations, including dish arrays and cylinders. We describe the computation of the instrument response function, the point spread function (PSF), transfer function, the noise covariance matrix and noise power spectrum. The analysis in this paper is focused on dish arrays operating in transit mode. We show that arrays with regular spacing have more pronounced side lobes as well as structures in their noise power spectrum, compared to arrays with irregular spacing, specially in the north-south direction. A good knowledge of the noise power spectrum $C^{\mathrm{noise}}(\ell )$ is essential for intensity mapping experiments as non uniform $C^{\mathrm{noise}}(\ell )$ is a potential problem for the measurement of the HI power spectrum. Different configurations have been studied to optimise the PAON-4 and Tianlai dish array layouts. We present their expected performance and their sensitivities to the 21-cm emission of the Milky Way and local extragalactic HI clumps

20 pages, 18 figures - Submitted to MNRAS ( the appendix A,B are not included in the accepted version)

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array: design, operation and performance of a prototype transit radio interferometer
• Spherical Harmonic Analyses of Intensity Mapping Power Spectra
• The Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder Array: System Functions and Basic Performance Analysis
• Data Processing Pipeline For Tianlai Experiment
• Beam Measurements of the Tianlai Dish Radio Telescope using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
• An imaging algorithm for a lunar orbit interferometer array
• The Tianlai dish array low-z surveys forecasts
• Reflections and Standing Waves on the Tianlai Cylinder Array
• An Eigenvector-based Method of Radio Array Calibration and Its Application to the Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder
• A Fast Transient Backend to Detect FRBs with the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array
• A Spherical Harmonic Analysis of the Ooty Wide Field Array (OWFA) Visibility Signal
• Design, operation and performance of the PAON4 prototype transit interferometer
• Progress in the Construction and Testing of the Tianlai Radio Interferometers
• On Measuring the 21 cm Global Spectrum of the Cosmic Dawn with an Interferometer Array
• AlgoSCR: An algorithm for Solar Contamination Removal from radio interferometric data
• Synthesis imaging with a lunar orbit array: I. global sky map and its systematics
• Extracting 21cm signal by frequency and angular filtering
• The Effects of the Local Environment on a Compact Radio Interferometer I: Cross-coupling in the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array