The hydrogen epoch of reionization array dish III: measuring chromaticity of prototype element with reflectometry

Abstract

The experimental efforts to detect the redshifted 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are limited predominantly by the chromatic instrumental systematic effect. The delay spectrum methodology for 21 cm power spectrum measurements brought new attention to the critical impact of an antenna's chromaticity on the viability of making this measurement. This methodology established a straightforward relationship between time-domain response of an instrument and the power spectrum modes accessible to a 21 cm EoR experiment. We examine the performance of a prototype of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) array element that is currently observing in Karoo desert, South Africa. We present a mathematical framework to derive the beam integrated frequency response of a HERA prototype element in reception from the return loss measurements between 100-200 MHz and determined the extent of additional foreground contamination in the delay space. The measurement reveals excess spectral structures in comparison to the simulation studies of the HERA element. Combined with the HERA data analysis pipeline that incorporates inverse covariance weighting in optimal quadratic estimation of power spectrum, we find that in spite of its departure from the simulated response, HERA prototype element satisfies the necessary criteria posed by the foreground attenuation limits and potentially can measure the power spectrum at spatial modes as low as $k_{\parallel} > 0.1h$~Mpc$^{-1}$. The work highlights a straightforward method for directly measuring an instrument response and assessing its impact on 21 cm EoR power spectrum measurements for future experiments that will use reflector-type antenna.