How do polarized foregrounds affect 21cm EoR power spectrum detection?

Author

Moore, David ; Aguirre, James E. ; Parsons, Aaron R. ; Bradley, Richard F. ; Carilli, Christopher L. ; DeBoer, David R. ; Ali, Zaki S. ; Liu, An ; Jacobs, Daniel C. ; Pober, Jonathan C. ; Stefan, Irina I.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

8-11 Jan. 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

Summary form only given. Polarized foregrounds pose a threat for attempts to measure the 21cm Epoch of Reionization (EoR) power spectrum. Faraday rotation of natively polarized synchrotron emission modulates the phase of the polarization states Q and U by a factor of exp{-2iRMλ²}, where λ is the wavelength of incident light, and RM is a function of the magnetic field and electron density along the line of sight. This phase-factor is non-orthogonal to the frequency sine waves composing the EoR power spectrum, creating a potential leakage from polarized emission into the power spectrum. My recent paper, Moore, et al. 2013, exposes this as a problem, and presents a simulation estimating its severity.

Keywords

Faraday effect; electron density; polarisation; radioastronomical techniques; synchrotron radiation; EoR power spectrum detection; Faraday rotation; electron density; epoch of reionization; polarized emission; polarized foregrounds; synchrotron emission; wavelength 21 cm; Arrays; Current measurement; Educational institutions; Extraterrestrial measurements; Observatories; Power measurement; Radio astronomy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI NRSM), 2014 United States National Committee of URSI National

Conference_Location

Boulder, CO

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-3119-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/USNC-URSI-NRSM.2014.6928121

Filename

6928121