External calibrator in global signal experiment for detection of the epoch of reionization

We present a conceptual design study of external calibrators in the 21 cm experiment towards detecting the globally averaged radiation of the epoch of reionization (EoR). Employment of external calibrator instead of internal calibrator commonly used in current EoR experiments allows removing instrumental effects such as beam pattern, receiver gain and instability of the system if the conventional three-position switch measurements are implemented in a short time interval. Furthermore, in the new design the antenna system is placed in an underground anechoic chamber with an open/closing ceiling to maximally reduce the environmental effect such as RFI and ground radiation/reflection. It appears that three of the four external calibrators proposed in this paper, including two indoor artificial transmitters and one outdoor celestial radiation (the Galactic polarization), fail to meet our purpose. Diurnal motion of the Galactic diffuse emission turns out to be the most probable source as an external calibrator, for which we have discussed the observational strategy and the algorithm of extracting the EoR signal.

Note:

13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA)

cosmology: observations
dark ages
reionization
radio lines: general
methods: observational

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