| Title | An Eigenvector-Based Method of Radio Array Calibration and Its Application to the Tianlai Cylinder Pathfinder |
| Authors | Zu, Shifan Pen, Ue-Li Wu, Fengquan Li, Jixia Stebbins, Albert Wang, Yougang Chen, Xuelei |
| Affiliation | Chinese Acad Sci, Natl Astron Observ, Key Lab Computat Astrophys, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Sch Astron & Space Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China Canadian Inst Theoret Astrophys, 60 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada Canadian Inst Adv Res, CIFAR Program Gravitat & Cosmol, Toronto, ON MSG 1Z8, Canada Fermilab Natl Accelerator Lab, Batavia, IL 60510 USA Peking Univ, Ctr High Energy Phys, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China |
| Keywords | instrumentation: interferometers methods: data analysis techniques: interferometric |
| Issue Date | 2019 |
| Publisher | ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL |
| Abstract | We propose an eigenvector-based formalism for the calibration of radio interferometer arrays. In the presence of a strong dominant point source, the complex gains of the array can be obtained by taking the first eigenvector of the visibility matrix. We use the stable principle component analysis method to help separate outliers and noise from the calibrator signal to improve the performance of the method. This method can be applied with poorly known beam model of the antenna, is insensitive to outliers or imperfections in the data, and has low computational complexity. It thus is particularly suitable for the initial calibration of the array, which can serve as the initial point for more accurate calibrations. We demonstrate this method by applying it to the cylinder pathfinder of the Tianlai experiment, which aims to measure the dark energy equation of state using the baryon acoustic oscillation features in the large-scale structure by making intensity mapping observation of the redshifted 21 cm emission of the neutral hydrogen (H I). The complex gain of the array elements and the beam profile in the east-west direction (short axis of the cylinder) are successfully obtained by applying this method to the transit data of bright radio sources. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/552271 |
| ISSN | 0004-6256 |
| DOI | 10.3847/1538-3881/aaf4c0 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) EI |
| Appears in Collections: | 物理学院 |
