HI Epoch of Reionization Arrays

There are few data available with which to constrain the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) following global recombination. Thus far, most constraints flow from analyses of the Cosmic Microwave Background and optical spectroscopy along a few lines of sight. However, direct study of the IGM in emission or absorption against the CMB via the 1S hyperfine transition of Hydrogen would enable broad characterization thermal history and source populations. New generations of radio arrays are in development to measure this line signature. Bright foreground emission and the complexity of instrument calibration models are significant hurdles. How to optimize these is uncertain, resulting in a diversity in approaches. We discuss recent limits on line brightness, array efforts including the new Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Ages (LEDA), and the next generation Hydrogen Reionization Array (HERA) concept.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Invited review to the 11th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting 2011, NARIT Conference Series, Vol. 1 eds. S. Komonjinda, Y. Kovalev, and D. Ruffolo (2012

Radio Sources in the NCP Region Observed with the 21 Centimeter Array

We present a catalog of 624 radio sources detected around the North Celestial Pole (NCP) with the 21 Centimeter Array (21CMA), a radio interferometer dedicated to the statistical measurement of the epoch of reionization (EoR). The data are taken from a 12 h observation made on 2013 April 13, with a frequency coverage from 75 to 175 MHz and an angular resolution of ~ 4 arcmin. The catalog includes flux densities at eight sub-bands across the 21CMA bandwidth and provides the in-band spectral indices for the detected sources. To reduce the complexity of interferometric imaging from the so-called "w" term and ionospheric effects, the present analysis are restricted to the east-west baselines within 1500 m only. The 624 radio sources are found within 5 degrees around the NCP down to ~ 0.1 Jy. Our source counts are compared, and also exhibit a good agreement, with deep low-frequency observations made recently with the GMRT and MWA. In particular, for fainter radio sources below ~ 1 Jy, we find a flattening trend of source counts towards lower frequencies. While the thermal noise (~0.4 mJy) is well controlled to below the confusion limit, the dynamical range (~10^4) and sensitivity of current 21CMA imaging is largely limited by calibration and deconvolution errors, especially the grating lobes of very bright sources, such as 3C061.1, in the NCP field which result from the regular spacings of the 21CMA. We note that particular attention should be paid to the extended sources, and their modeling and removals may constitute a large technical challenge for current EoR experiments. Our analysis may serve as a useful guide to design of next generation low-frequency interferometers like the Square Kilometre Array.Comment: 16 pages, 21 figures, 7 tables, 1 machine readable table, accepted for publication in Ap

Reionization and Cosmology with 21 cm Fluctuations

Measurement of the spatial distribution of neutral hydrogen via the redshifted 21 cm line promises to revolutionize our knowledge of the epoch of reionization and the first galaxies, and may provide a powerful new tool for observational cosmology from redshifts 1<z<4 . In this review we discuss recent advances in our theoretical understanding of the epoch of reionization (EoR), the application of 21 cm tomography to cosmology and measurements of the dark energy equation of state after reionization, and the instrumentation and observational techniques shared by 21 cm EoR and post reionization cosmology machines. We place particular emphasis on the expected signal and observational capabilities of first generation 21 cm fluctuation instruments.Comment: Invited review for Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2010 volume

Space Time MUSIC: Consistent Signal Subspace Estimation for Wide-band Sensor Arrays

Wide-band Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation with sensor arrays is an essential task in sonar, radar, acoustics, biomedical and multimedia applications. Many state of the art wide-band DOA estimators coherently process frequency binned array outputs by approximate Maximum Likelihood, Weighted Subspace Fitting or focusing techniques. This paper shows that bin signals obtained by filter-bank approaches do not obey the finite rank narrow-band array model, because spectral leakage and the change of the array response with frequency within the bin create \emph{ghost sources} dependent on the particular realization of the source process. Therefore, existing DOA estimators based on binning cannot claim consistency even with the perfect knowledge of the array response. In this work, a more realistic array model with a finite length of the sensor impulse responses is assumed, which still has finite rank under a space-time formulation. It is shown that signal subspaces at arbitrary frequencies can be consistently recovered under mild conditions by applying MUSIC-type (ST-MUSIC) estimators to the dominant eigenvectors of the wide-band space-time sensor cross-correlation matrix. A novel Maximum Likelihood based ST-MUSIC subspace estimate is developed in order to recover consistency. The number of sources active at each frequency are estimated by Information Theoretic Criteria. The sample ST-MUSIC subspaces can be fed to any subspace fitting DOA estimator at single or multiple frequencies. Simulations confirm that the new technique clearly outperforms binning approaches at sufficiently high signal to noise ratio, when model mismatches exceed the noise floor.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Accepted in a revised form by the IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing on 12 February 1918. @IEEE201

Accurate angle-of-arrival measurement using particle swarm optimization

As one of the major methods for location positioning, angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimation is a significant technology in radar, sonar, radio astronomy, and mobile communications. AOA measurements can be exploited to locate mobile units, enhance communication efficiency and network capacity, and support location-aided routing, dynamic network management, and many location-based services. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for AOA estimation in colored noise fields and harsh application scenarios. By modeling the unknown noise covariance as a linear combination of known weighting matrices, a maximum likelihood (ML) criterion is established, and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) paradigm is designed to optimize the cost function. Simulation results demonstrate that the paired estimator PSO-ML significantly outperforms other popular techniques and produces superior AOA estimates

MIMO Radar Target Localization and Performance Evaluation under SIRP Clutter

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar has become a thriving subject of research during the past decades. In the MIMO radar context, it is sometimes more accurate to model the radar clutter as a non-Gaussian process, more specifically, by using the spherically invariant random process (SIRP) model. In this paper, we focus on the estimation and performance analysis of the angular spacing between two targets for the MIMO radar under the SIRP clutter. First, we propose an iterative maximum likelihood as well as an iterative maximum a posteriori estimator, for the target's spacing parameter estimation in the SIRP clutter context. Then we derive and compare various Cram\'er-Rao-like bounds (CRLBs) for performance assessment. Finally, we address the problem of target resolvability by using the concept of angular resolution limit (ARL), and derive an analytical, closed-form expression of the ARL based on Smith's criterion, between two closely spaced targets in a MIMO radar context under SIRP clutter. For this aim we also obtain the non-matrix, closed-form expressions for each of the CRLBs. Finally, we provide numerical simulations to assess the performance of the proposed algorithms, the validity of the derived ARL expression, and to reveal the ARL's insightful properties.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figure