Robust Extraction of Global 21 cm Spectrum from Experiments with a Chromatic Beam Based on Physics-Motivated Error Modeling

TL;DR

This paper presents a physics-motivated, covariance-aware method for extracting the global 21 cm signal from lunar-orbit experiments, effectively mitigating chromatic beam effects and foreground contamination.

Contribution

It introduces a joint fitting approach that models both foregrounds and measurement errors, improving signal extraction robustness against beam chromaticity.

Findings

Successfully extracts 21 cm signals from simulated data with high chromaticity

Reduces the need for stringent antenna design requirements

Demonstrates robustness in a lunar-orbit experimental setup

Abstract

The extraction of the sky-averaged 21 cm signal from Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization faces significant challenges. The bright and anisotropic Galactic foreground, which is 4 - 5 orders of magnitude brighter than the 21 cm signal, when convolved with the inevitably chromatic beam, introduces additional spectral structures that can easily mimic the real 21 cm signal. In this paper, we investigate the signal extraction for a lunar-orbit experiment, where the antenna moves fast in orbit and data from multiple orbits have to be used. We propose a physics-motivated and correlated modeling of both the foreground and the measurement errors. By dividing the sky into multiple regions according to the spectral index distribution and accounting for the full covariance of modeling errors, we jointly fit both the foreground and the 21 cm signal using simulated data for the Discovering the Sky at the Longest wavelength lunar orbit experiment. This method successfully extracts the 21 cm signals of various amplitudes from the simulated data even for a testing antenna with a relatively high level of chromaticity. This approach, which is robust against moderate beam chromaticity, significantly relaxes the stringent design and manufacturing requirements for the antenna, offering a practical solution for future 21 cm global signal experiments either on the ground or in space.