The first power spectrum limit on the 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen during the Cosmic Dawn at z = 20–25 from LOFAR

ABSTRACT Observations of the redshifted 21-cm hyperfine line of neutral hydrogen from early phases of the Universe such as Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization promise to open a new window onto the early formation of stars and galaxies. We present the first upper limits on the power spectrum of redshifted 21-cm brightness temperature fluctuations in the redshift range z = 19.8–25.2 (54–68 MHz frequency range) using 14 h of data obtained with the LOFAR-Low Band Antenna (LBA) array. We also demonstrate the application of a multiple pointing calibration technique to calibrate the LOFAR-LBA dual-pointing observations centred on the North Celestial Pole and the radio galaxy 3C220.3. We observe an unexplained excess of $\sim 30\!-\!50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in Stokes / noise compared to Stokes V for the two observed fields, which decorrelates on ≳12 s and might have a physical origin. We show that enforcing smoothness of gain errors along frequency direction during calibration reduces the additional variance in Stokes I compared Stokes V introduced by the calibration on sub-band level. After subtraction of smooth foregrounds, we achieve a 2σ upper limit on the 21-cm power spectrum of $\Delta _{21}^2 \lt (14561\, \text{mK})^2$ at $k\sim 0.038\, h\, \text{cMpc}^{-1}$ and $\Delta _{21}^2 \lt (14886\, \text{mK})^2$ at $k\sim 0.038 \, h\, \text{cMpc}^{-1}$ for the 3C220 and NCP fields respectively and both upper limits are consistent with each other. The upper limits for the two fields are still dominated by systematics on most k modes.

Photonic Generation of Dual-Band Power-Efficient Millimeter-Wave UWB Signals

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has attracted great interest because it can provide a promising solution of future radar and short-range broadband wireless communications. The generation of millimeter-wave UWB signals using photonic approaches can reduce the high cost of the millimeter-wave electrical circuits. Moreover, it is well compatible with fiber transmission, which can effectively extend its signal coverage. In this paper, a novel approach to the photonic generation of millimeter-wave UWB signals with dual-band operation consideration is proposed. The proposed scheme can simultaneously generate millimeter-wave UWB signals in both 24 GHz and 60 GHz millimeter band, and can efficiently exploit the spectrum limit allowed by the FCC mask by using the linear combination pulse design concept. A model describing the proposed system is developed and the generation of 24/60 GHz millimeter-wave UWB signals is demonstrated via computer simulations.