Foreground removal of CO intensity mapping using deep learning

Abstract

ABSTRACTLine intensity mapping (LIM) is a promising probe to study star formation, the large-scale structure of the Universe, and the epoch of reionization (EoR). Since carbon monoxide (CO) is the second most abundant molecule in the Universe except for molecular hydrogen H2, it is suitable as a tracer for LIM surveys. However, just like other LIM surveys, CO intensity mapping also suffers strong foreground contamination that needs to be eliminated for extracting valuable astrophysical and cosmological information. In this work, we take 12CO($\it J$ = 1-0) emission line as an example to investigate whether deep learning method can effectively recover the signal by removing the foregrounds. The CO(1-0) intensity maps are generated by N-body simulations considering CO luminosity and halo mass relation, and we discuss two cases with median and low CO signals by comparing different relations. We add foregrounds generated from real observations, including thermal dust, spinning dust, free–free, synchrotron emission, and cosmic microwave background anisotropy. The beam with sidelobe effect is also considered. Our deep learning model is built upon ResUNet, which combines image generation algorithm UNet with the state-of-the-art architecture of deep learning, ResNet. The principal component analysis (PCA) method is employed to preprocess data before feeding it to the ResUNet. We find that, in the case of low instrumental noise, our UNet can efficiently reconstruct the CO signal map with correct line power spectrum by removing the foregrounds and recovering PCA signal loss and beam effects. Our method also can be applied to other intensity mappings like neutral hydrogen 21-cm surveys.