• Abhirup Datta

Articles written in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy

• Probing Individual Sources during Reionization and Cosmic Dawn using Square Kilometre Array HI 21-cm Observations

Detection of individual luminous sources during the reionization epoch and cosmic dawn through their signatures in the HI 21-cm signal is one of the direct approaches to probe the epoch. Here, we summarize our previous works on this and present preliminary results on the prospects of detecting such sources using the SKA1-low experiment. We first discuss the expected HI 21-cm signal around luminous sources at different stages of reionization and cosmic dawn. We then introduce two visibility based estimators for detecting such signals: one based on the matched filtering technique and the other relies on simply combing the visibility signal from different baselines and frequency channels. We find that the SKA1-low should be able to detect ionized bubbles of radius $R_{\mathrm {b}} \gtrsim 10$ Mpc with $\sim100 \rm h$ of observations at redshift $z\sim8$ provided that the mean outside neutral hydrogen fraction $\mathrm {x}_{\text {HI}} \gtrsim 0.5$. We also investigate the possibility of detecting HII regions around known bright QSOs such as around ULASJ1120+0641 discovered by Mortlock et al. (Nature 474, 7353 (2011)). We find that a $5σ$ detection is possible with 600 h of SKA1-low observations if the QSO age and the outside $\mathrm {x}_{\text {HI}}$ are at least $\sim2 \times 10^7$ Myr and $\sim0.2$ respectively. Finally, we investigate the possibility of detecting the very first X-ray and Ly- α sources during the cosmic dawn. We consider mini-QSOs like sources which emits in X-ray frequency band. We find that with a total $\sim 1000 \rm h$ of observations, SKA1-low should be able to detect those sources individually with a $∼ 9σ$ significance at redshift z=15. We summarize how the SNR changes with various parameters related to the source properties.

• Clusters of Galaxies and the Cosmic Web with Square Kilometre Array

• Line-of-Sight Anisotropies in the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization 21-cm Power Spectrum

The line-of-sight direction in the redshifted 21-cm signal coming from the cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization is quite unique in many ways compared to any other cosmological signal. Different unique effects, such as the evolution history of the signal, non-linear peculiar velocities of the matter etc. will imprint their signature along the line-of-sight axis of the observed signal. One of the major goals of the future SKA-LOW radio interferometer is to observe the cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization through this 21-cm signal. It is thus important to understand how these various effects affect the signal for its actual detection and proper interpretation. For more than one and half decades, various groups in India have been actively trying to understand and quantify the different line-of-sight effects that are present in this signal through analytical models and simulations. In many ways the importance of this sub-field under 21-cm cosmology have been identified, highlighted and pushed forward by the Indian community. In this article, we briefly describe their contribution and implication of these effects in the context of the future surveys of the cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization that will be conducted by the SKA-LOW.

• Study of diffuse emission in cluster MACSJ0417.5-1154 from 76 MHz to 18 GHz

We present new radio observations of the massive and X-ray luminous galaxy cluster MACS J0417.5–1154, at 1.387 GHz and 18 GHz, from the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) respectively.We estimate diffuse emission in the central region ofthe cluster at 1.387 GHz and 18 GHz. We combine these data with previously published results and present the spectrum of diffuse emission from 76 MHz to 18 GHz. This is possibly a unique study of the radio halo emission in galaxy cluster over this wide range of frequencies. Such studies lay the prospects of future studies with radio telescopes with wide-range of frequencies like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Our 1.387 GHz data, with 2$^{\prime\prime}$ angular resolution, provides a better estimate of point source emission than previous L-band observations, which is crucial, given the claim of sharp steepening of the radio halo spectrum at 0.61 GHz reported earlier. We find that the spectrum of the radio halo has a spectral index fit up to 18 GHz, and yields a spectral indexbetween 76 MHz and 18 GHz that fits the available data better than earlier L-band observations. We discuss possible reasons for the peculiar spectral characteristics of the diffuse emission.

• Editorial

• Exploring Earth’s ionosphere and its effect on low radio frequency observation with the uGMRT and the SKA

The Earth’s ionosphere introduces systematic effects that limit the performance of a radio interferometer at low frequencies ($\lesssim$1 GHz). These effects become more pronounced for severe geomagnetic activities or observations involving longer interferometer baselines. The uGMRT, a pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), is located between the northern crest of the Equatorial ionisation Anomaly (EIA) and the magnetic equator. Hence, this telescope is more prone to severe ionospheric conditions and is a unique radio interferometer for studying the ionosphere. Here, we present 235MHz observations with the GMRT, showingsignificant ionospheric activities over a solar minimum. This work has characterised the ionospheric disturbances observed with the GMRT. We have compared them with ionospheric studies and observations with other telescopes like the VLA, MWA and LOFAR situated at different magnetic latitudes. We have estimated the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) gradient over the full GMRT array, showing an order of magnitude higher sensitivity than the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Furthermore, this article uses the ionospheric characteristics estimated from the observations with uGMRT, VLA, LOFAR and MWA to forecast the effects of the low-frequency observations with the SKA1-MID and SKA1-LOW in the future.

• # Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy

Volume 44, 2023
All articles
Continuous Article Publishing mode

• # Continuous Article Publication

Posted on January 27, 2016

Since January 2016, the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy has moved to Continuous Article Publishing (CAP) mode. This means that each accepted article is being published immediately online with DOI and article citation ID with starting page number 1. Articles are also visible in Web of Science immediately. All these have helped shorten the publication time and have improved the visibility of the articles.

• # Editorial Note on Continuous Article Publication

Posted on July 25, 2019

Click here for Editorial Note on CAP Mode

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