Redundant interferometric calibration as a complex optimization problem

Abstract

Observations of the redshifted 21-cm line from the epoch of reionization have recently motivated the construction of low frequency radio arrays with highly redundant configurations. These configurations provide an alternative calibration strategy - "redundant calibration" - and boosts sensitivity on specific spatial scales. In this paper, we formulate calibration of redundant interferometric arrays as a complex optimization problem. We solve this optimization problem via the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. This calibration approach is more robust to initial conditions than current algorithms and, by leveraging an approximate matrix inversion, allows for further optimization and an efficient implementation ("redundant StEfCal"). We also investigated using the preconditioned conjugate gradient method as an alternative to the approximate matrix inverse, but found that its computational performance is not competitive with respect to "redundant StEfCal". The efficient implementation of this new algorithm is made publicly available.

11 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS accepted

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Data Analysis for Precision 21 cm Cosmology
• Fundamental Limitations on the Calibration of Redundant 21 cm Cosmology Instruments and Implications for HERA and the SKA
• Redundant-Baseline Calibration of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
• A Unified Calibration Framework for 21 cm Cosmology
• Foreground modelling via Gaussian process regression: an application to HERA data
• Delay-Weighted Calibration: Precision Calibration for 21 cm Cosmology with Resilience to Sky Model Error