Fast Holographic Deconvolution: a new technique for precision radio interferometry

7 Sep 2012  ·  Ian Sullivan, Miguel Morales, Bryna Hazelton, Wayne Arcus, David Barnes, Gianni Bernardi, Frank Briggs, Judd D. Bowman, John Bunton, Roger Cappallo, Brian Corey, Avinash Deshpande, Ludi deSouza, David Emrich, B. M. Gaensler, Robert Goeke, Lincoln Greenhill, David Herne, Jacqueline Hewitt, Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, David Kaplan, Justin Kasper, Barton Kincaid, Ronald Koenig, Eric Kratzenberg, Colin Lonsdale, Mervyn Lynch, Russell McWhirter, Daniel Mitchell, Edward Morgan, Divya Oberoi, Stephen Ord, Joseph Pathikulangara, Thiagaraj Prabu, Ron Remillard, Alan Rogers, Anish Roshi, Joseph Salah, Robert Sault, Udaya Shankar, K. Srivani, Jamie Stevens, Ravi Subrahmanyan, Steven Tingay, Randall Wayth, Mark Waterson, Rachel Webster, Alan Whitney, Andrew Williams, Chris Williams, Stuart Wyithe ·

We introduce the Fast Holographic Deconvolution method for analyzing interferometric radio data. Our new method is an extension of A-projection/software-holography/forward modeling analysis techniques and shares their precision deconvolution and widefield polarimetry, while being significantly faster than current implementations that use full direction-dependent antenna gains. Using data from the MWA 32 antenna prototype, we demonstrate the effectiveness and precision of our new algorithm. Fast Holographic Deconvolution may be particularly important for upcoming 21 cm cosmology observations of the Epoch of Reionization and Dark Energy where foreground subtraction is intimately related to the precision of the data reduction.

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Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics