Forecast measurement of the 21 cm global spectrum from Lunar orbit with the Vari-Zeroth-Order Polynomial (VZOP) method

TL;DR

This paper proposes a lunar orbit satellite method using VZOP to detect the faint cosmic 21 cm signal, addressing challenges like RFI and lunar effects, and demonstrates successful detection after about 103 days.

Contribution

It introduces the VZOP method for foreground subtraction in lunar orbit 21 cm signal detection and analyzes various noise and interference effects impacting the process.

Findings

RFI significantly hampers signal detection without mitigation.

VZOP combined with lunar orbit observations enables successful detection after ~103 days.

Far side of the Moon is essential to avoid RFI contamination.

Abstract

The cosmic 21 cm signal serves as a crucial probe for studying the evolutionary history of the Universe. However, detecting the 21 cm signal poses significant challenges due to its extremely faint nature. To mitigate the interference from the Earth's radio frequency interference (RFI), the ground and the ionospheric effects, the Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelength (DSL) project will deploy a constellation of satellites in Lunar orbit, with its high-frequency daughter satellite tasked with detecting the global 21 cm signal from cosmic dawn and reionization era (CD/EoR). We intend to employ the Vari-Zeroth-Order Polynomial (VZOP) for foreground fitting and subtracting. We have studied the effect of thermal noise, thermal radiation from the Moon, the Lunar reflection, anisotropic frequency-dependent beam, inaccurate antenna beam pattern, and RFI contamination. We discovered that the RFI contamination can significantly affect the fitting process and thus prevent us from detecting the signal. Therefore, experimenting on the far side of the moon is crucial. We also discovered that using VZOP together with DSL, after 1080 orbits around the Moon, which takes about 103 days, we can successfully detect the CD/EoR 21 cm signal.