Receiver design for the REACH global 21-cm signal experiment.

We detail the REACH radiometric system designed to enable measurements of the 21-cm neutral hydrogen line. Included is the radiometer architecture and end-to-end system simulations as well as a discussion of the challenges intrinsic to highly-calibratable system development. Following this, we share laboratory results based on the calculation of noise wave parameters utilising an over-constrained least squares approach. For five hours of integration on a custom-made source with comparable impedance to that of the antenna used in the field, we demonstrate a calibration RMSE of 80 mK. This paper therefore documents the state of the calibrator and data analysis in December 2022 in Cambridge before shipping to South Africa.

Description

Acknowledgements: WJH was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. EdLA was supported by a STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. The REACH collaboration acknowledges the Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge, Stellenbosch University, the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund for their financial support of the project.

Funder: Royal Society; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000288

Funder: Science and Technology Facilities Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000271

Keywords

Calibration, Cosmology, Dark ages, Instrumentation, Radiometer, Reionisation

Journal Title

Exp Astron (Dordr)

Journal ISSN

0922-6435
1572-9508

Volume Title

59

Publisher

Springer Nature

Publisher DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-024-09975-3

Rights and licensing

Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Relationships

Is derived from:

https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2307.00099

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