The effect of Galactic foreground subtraction on redshifted 21-cm observations of quasar HII regions

TL;DR

This study evaluates how Galactic foreground subtraction affects the detection and measurement of high-redshift quasar HII regions in 21-cm observations, highlighting challenges in measuring neutral hydrogen fraction but robustness in size and shape measurements.

Contribution

It demonstrates that foreground removal reduces contrast for neutral fraction estimation but preserves the size and shape of HII regions in 21-cm maps.

Findings

Foreground removal lowers contrast between HII regions and IGM.

Size and shape measurements of HII regions are unaffected by foreground subtraction.

Rapid IGM evolution does not hinder size and shape measurements.

Abstract

We assess the impact of Galactic synchrotron foreground removal on the observation of high-redshift quasar HII regions in redshifted 21-cm emission. We consider the case where a quasar is observed in an intergalactic medium (IGM) whose ionisation structure evolves slowly relative to the light crossing time of the HII region, as well as the case where the evolution is rapid. The latter case is expected towards the end of the reionisation era where the highest redshift luminous quasars will be observed. In the absence of foregrounds the fraction of neutral hydrogen in the IGM could be measured directly from the contrast between the HII region and surrounding IGM. However, we find that foreground removal lowers the observed contrast between the HII region and the IGM. This indicates that measurement of the neutral fraction would require modelling to correct for this systematic effect. On the other hand, foreground removal does not modify the most prominent features of the 21-cm maps. Using a simple algorithm we demonstrate that measurements of the size and shape of observed HII regions will not be affected by continuum foreground removal. Moreover, measurements of these quantities will not be adversely affected by the presence of a rapidly evolving IGM.