Redundant interferometric calibration as a complex optimization problem

TL;DR

This paper formulates redundant interferometric calibration as a complex optimization problem and introduces an efficient, robust algorithm called redundant StEfCal, improving calibration performance for radio arrays used in 21-cm cosmology observations.

Contribution

It presents a novel optimization-based calibration method for redundant radio arrays, with an efficient implementation that outperforms existing algorithms.

Findings

Redundant StEfCal offers improved robustness to initial conditions.

The algorithm is computationally efficient and publicly available.

Alternative methods like preconditioned conjugate gradient are less competitive.

Abstract

Observations of the redshifted 21-cm line from the epoch of reionization have recently motivated the construction of low frequency radio arrays with highly redundant configurations. These configurations provide an alternative calibration strategy - "redundant calibration" - and boosts sensitivity on specific spatial scales. In this paper, we formulate calibration of redundant interferometric arrays as a complex optimization problem. We solve this optimization problem via the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. This calibration approach is more robust to initial conditions than current algorithms and, by leveraging an approximate matrix inversion, allows for further optimization and an efficient implementation ("redundant StEfCal"). We also investigated using the preconditioned conjugate gradient method as an alternative to the approximate matrix inverse, but found that its computational performance is not competitive with respect to "redundant StEfCal". The efficient implementation of this new algorithm is made publicly available.