1 Gy 14 Gy z = 1100 z = 50 z = 5 z = 0 100 My Epoch of Reionisation Cosmic Dawn Dark Ages IGM ionised fraction 1 Small scales Large scales 0 ionised neutral galaxy quasar 380 ky 1 Gy 14 Gy 100 My What we want to measure: the ionisation level of intergalactic matter (mostly H) 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 2
fraction Baryon density Signal intensity ∝ With observations of this signal, one can trace the ionisation level and matter distribution in the Universe! 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 3
cm Redshifted to radio frequencies ɣ Photon in a static Universe Photon in an expanding Universe Because it is a spectral line, we can know when the signal was emitted and trace back the history of reionisation: 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 4
cm Redshifted to radio frequencies ɣ Today Big Bang Because it is a spectral line, we can know when the signal was emitted and trace back the history of reionisation: 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 5
second-order stationary (or homogenous, or translationally-invariant) random field is the spatial Fourier transform of the covariance function of that field: See arXiv:2407.14068 Wayne Hu 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 7
second-order stationary (or homogenous, or translationally-invariant) random field is the spatial Fourier transform of the covariance function of that field: Reionisation history Average intensity Power spectrum Intensity map For the 21cm signal: 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 8
the sky Baseline length b ij Signal intensity Beam is the Fourier dual of the sky angle (k ⟂ ) • Dense arrays measure large-scale fluctuations (e.g. EDGES’ “table”) • Wide arrays measure small-scale fluctuations (e.g. HERA & foreground avoidance) An estimator of the power spectrum is built directly from the visibilities: 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 9
200 MHz z = 13 z = 6 10° stripe (beam) at fixed declination 100 MHz HERA is an official SKA precursor. The signal is faint so HERA is huge! 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 10
SKA precursor in SA. Challenges: • Data cleaning • RFI • Data volumes (1TB/day, RTP) • Component separation for foregrounds • Characterising systematics Slide adapted from Lisa McBride’s 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 11
ICR 13 Time Frequency LST Frequency LST binning (Fast) Fourier transform along frequency axis and binning Cylindrical power spectrum Spherical average Power spectrum = science product! We don’t make images!
stars and us and dominate the observed sky • Amplitude of the cosmological signal = 10mK • Amplitude of the foregrounds = 1 000 to 10 000 mK 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 14 Figure by Vibor Jelic Time/redshift All foreground treatment methods rely on the assumption that foregrounds are spectrally smooth
ij with the same physical separation should observe the same Vtrue. No sky model. Solve for g i and Vsol at each time and frequency step: 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 15 2. Absolute calibration using a catalog
of the target frequency band is polluted by human emission: aviation communication, FM radio, radars, … these are called radio frequency interference (RFI) Even the faintest outside signal is measured by our extremely sensitive telescopes → limits the amount of data we can analyse: we excise what is polluted FM band 12 < z < 15 TV
in the literature: • CLEAN (deconvolution algorithm for 2D images, see Högbom+1974) Högbom+1974 Dirty maps Idea: Iterativerly remove sidelobes from regions with highest Fourier amplitudes until reaching the noise floor.
in the literature: • CLEAN (deconvolution algorithm for 2D images, see Högbom+1974) • CNN (U-Net, Pagano+2023) • Wiener filtering and Gaussian process regression (GPR, see Kern & Liu 2020) Model missing data as Gaussian distribution with mean and cov: Cosmological signal Noise Foregrounds Data d Requires a model for each component
the full underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters without any summary statistic? Reionisation history Average intensity Power spectrum Intensity map
field 21cm brightness temperature Why not recover the full underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + cosmological parameters? It is a very high dimension problem
Iteration #2… Why not recover the full underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent
underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 26 It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent Matter overdensity to find the field that minimises
underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 27 It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent Hamiltonian Monte-Carlo to sample the posteriors A CONCEPTUAL INTRODUCTION TO HAMILTONIAN MONTE CARLO 21 Fig 14. The exploration of a probabilistic system is mathematically equivalent to the exploration of a physical system. For example, we can interpret the mode of the target density as a massive planet and the gradient of the target density as that planet’s gravitational field. The typical set becomes the space around the planet through which we want a test object, such as a satellite, to orbit. High probability Walker Next walker step depends on the value of the posterior and its gradient.
underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 28 It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent Hamiltonian Monte-Carlo to sample the posteriors Density field « model » 21cm field « data » True Recovered
underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 29 It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent Hamiltonian Monte-Carlo to sample the posteriors
underlying density field (pixel by pixel) + reionisation parameters? 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 30 It is a very high dimension problem: we use gradient descent Things get messy when there are ionised “bubbles” = gaps in data Need to impose a prior on the density in these missing pixels a. Matter power spectrum (known theoretically, e.g., inpainting) b. Cross-correlations (e.g., with CO maps, see Zhou & Mao 2023)
• Masking the Galaxy or point sources • Resolution limits, e.g., in spectroscopic surveys… Depending on the application • Fill with statistical realisation or truth? • Requires a model for all data components: What if this model is not accurate? • Difficult to assess uncertainties pertaining to the missing data 17/02/2025 Réunion GT ICR 35 Thank you!