Abstract
Abstract The overwhelming foreground causes severe contamination on the detection of 21 cm signal during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Among various foreground components, the Galactic free–free emission is less studied, so that its impact on the EoR observation remains unclear. To better constrain this emission, we perform Monte Carlo simulation of Hα emission, which comprises direct and scattered Hα radiation from H ii regions and warm ionized medium (WIM). The positions and radii of H ii regions are quoted from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer H ii catalog, and the WIM is described by an axisymmetric model. The scattering is off dust and free electrons that are realized by applying an exponential fitting to the HI4PI H i map and an exponential disk model, respectively. The simulated Hα intensity, the Simfast21 software, and the latest SKA1-Low layout configuration are employed to simulate the SKA “observed” images of Galactic free–free emission and the EoR signal. By analyzing the one-dimensional power spectra, we find that the Galactic free–free emission can be about 105.4–102.1, 105.0–101.7, and 104.3–101.1 times more luminous than the EoR signal on scales of in the 116–124, 146–154, and 186–194 MHz frequency bands, respectively. We further calculate the two-dimensional power spectra inside the EoR window and show that the power leaked by Galactic free–free emission can still be significant, as the power ratios can reach about 110%–8000%, 30%–2400%, and 10%–250% on scales of in three frequency bands. Therefore, we indicate that the Galactic free–free emission should be carefully treated in future EoR detections.
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