Enabling Radio Cosmology with Delay-Weighted Calibration

Speaker: Ruby Byrne (Caltech) In Person and zoom 

Zoom info:  https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98604058568

The 21 cm emission line from neutral hydrogen offers a powerful tool for mapping the universe's large-scale structure throughout cosmological history, from the cosmic Dark Ages to the present day. The principal challenge in these analyses is controlling the bright intervening foreground emission, which is 4–5 orders of magnitude brighter than the signal. We require analyses that reconstruct the signal with exceptional fidelity. I will describe an innovative analysis technique called Delay-Weighted Calibration, or DWCal, that enables the most precise signal reconstruction to date. DWCal targets key mechanisms of systematic error that affect cosmology measurements and offers the best path toward 21 cm intensity mapping across redshift.