Radio interferometers can potentially detect the sky-averaged signal from the Cosmic Dawn (CD) and the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) by studying the Moon as a thermal block to the foreground sky. The first step is to mitigate the Earth-based radio frequency interference (RFI) reflections (Earthshine) from the Moon, which significantly contaminate the FM band $\approx 88-110$ MHz, crucial to CD-EoR science. We analysed Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) phase I data from 72 to 180 MHz at 40 kHz resolution to understand the nature of Earthshine over three observing nights. We took two approaches to correct the Earthshine component from the Moon. In the first method, we mitigated the Earthshine using the flux density of the two components from the data, while in the second method, we used simulated flux density based on an FM catalogue to mitigate the Earthshine. Using these methods, we were able to recover the expected Galactic foreground temperature of the patch of sky obscured by the Moon. We performed a joint analysis of the Galactic foregrounds and the Moon’s intrinsic temperature $(T_{\mathrm{Moon}})$ while assuming that the Moon has a constant thermal temperature throughout three epochs. We found $T_{\mathrm{Moon}}$ to be at $184.4\pm{2.6}\,\mathrm{K}$ and $173.8\pm{2.5}\,\mathrm{K}$ using the first and the second methods, respectively, and the best-fit values of the Galactic spectral index $(\alpha)$ to be within the 5% uncertainty level when compared with the global sky models. Compared with our previous work, these results improved constraints on the Galactic spectral index and the Moon’s intrinsic temperature. We also simulated the Earthshine at MWA between November and December 2023 to find suitable observing times less affected by the Earthshine. Such observing windows act as Earthshine avoidance and can be used to perform future global CD-EoR experiments using the Moon with the MWA.

Recently Vernstrom et al. (2021, MNRAS) claimed the first definitive detection of the synchrotron cosmic web, obtained by ‘stacking’ hundreds of thousands of pairs of close-proximity clusters in low-frequency radio observations and looking for a residual excess signal spanning the intracluster bridge. A reproduction study by Hodgson et al. (2022, PASA, 39, e013), using both the original radio data as well as new observations with the Murchison Widefield Array, failed to confirm these findings. Whilst the detection remains unsure, we here turn to stacking a simulated radio sky to understand what kind of excess radio signal is predicted by our current best cosmological models of the synchrotron cosmic web. We use the FIlaments & GAlactic RadiO (FIGARO; Hodgson et al. 2021a, PASA, 38, e047) simulation, which models both the synchrotron cosmic web as well as various subtypes of active galactic nucleii and star-forming galaxies. Being a simulation, we have perfect knowledge of the location of clusters and galaxy groups which we use in our own stacking experiment. Whilst we do find an excess radio signature in our stacks that is attributable to the synchrotron cosmic web, its distribution is very different to that found by Vernstrom et al. (2021, MNRAS). Instead, we observe the appearance of excess emission on the immediate interiors of cluster pairs as a result of asymmetric, ‘radio relic’-like shocks surrounding cluster cores, whilst the excess emission spanning the intracluster region—attributable to filaments proper—is two orders of magnitude lower and undetectable in our experiment even under ideal conditions.

Global 21-cm experiments require exquisitely precise calibration of the measurement systems in order to separate the weak 21-cm signal from Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds as well as instrumental systematics. Hitherto, experiments aiming to make this measurement have concentrated on measuring this signal using the single element approach. However, an alternative approach based on interferometers with short baselines is expected to alleviate some of the difficulties associated with a single element approach such as precision modelling of the receiver noise spectrum. Short spacing Interferometer Telescope probing cosmic dAwn and epoch of ReionisAtion (SITARA) is a short spacing interferometer deployed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). It is intended to be a prototype or a test-bed to gain a better understanding of interferometry at short baselines, and develop tools to perform observations and data calibration. In this paper, we provide a description of the SITARA system and its deployment at the MRO, and discuss strategies developed to calibrate SITARA. We touch upon certain systematics seen in SITARA data and their modelling. We find that SITARA has sensitivity to all sky signals as well as non-negligible noise coupling between the antennas. It is seen that the coupled receiver noise has a spectral shape that broadly matches the theoretical calculations reported in prior works. We also find that when appropriately modified antenna radiation patterns taking into account the effects of mutual coupling are used, the measured data are well modelled by the standard visibility equation.

We follow up on the surprising recent announcement by Vernstrom et al. (2021, MNRAS) of the detection of the synchrotron cosmic web. We attempt to reproduce their detection with new observations with the Phase II, extended configuration of the Murchison Widefield Array at 118.5 MHz. We reproduce their detection methodology by stacking pairs of nearby luminous red galaxies (LRGs)—used as tracers for clusters and galaxy groups—contained in our low-frequency radio observations. We show that our observations are significantly more sensitive than those used in Vernstrom et al. and that our angular sensitivity is sufficient. And yet, we make no statistically significant detection of excess radio emission along the bridge spanning the LRG pairs. This non-detection is true both for the original LRG pair catalogue as used in Vernstrom et al., as well as for other larger catalogues with modified selection criteria. Finally, we return to the original data sets used in Vernstrom et al., and find that whilst we clearly reproduce the excess X-ray emission from ROSAT, we are not able to reproduce any kind of broad and extended excess intercluster filamentary emission using the original 118.5 MHz MWA survey data. In the interests of understanding this result, as part of this paper we release images of the 14 fields used in this study, the final stacked images, as well as key components of our stacking and modelling code.

We produce the first low to mid-frequency radio simulation that incorporates both traditional extragalactic radio sources as well as synchrotron cosmic web emission. The FIlaments & GAlactic RadiO (FIGARO) simulation includes 10 unique 4° × 4° fields, incorporating active galactic nucleii (AGNs), star-forming galaxies (SFGs), and synchrotron cosmic web emission out to a redshift of z = 0.8 and over the frequency range 100–1 400 MHz. To do this, the simulation brings together a recent 1003 Mpc3 magnetohydrodynamic simulation (Vazza et al. 2019, A&A, 627, A5), calibrated to match observed radio relic population statistics, alongside updated ‘T-RECS’ code for simulating extragalactic radio sources (Bonaldi et al. 2019, MNRAS, 482, 2). Uniquely, the AGNs and SFGs are populated and positioned in accordance with the underlying matter density of the cosmological simulation. In this way, the simulation provides an accurate understanding of the apparent morphology, angular scales, and brightness of the cosmic web as well as—crucially—the clustering properties of the cosmic web with respect to the embedded extragalactic radio population. We find that the synchrotron cosmic web does not closely trace the underlying mass distribution of the cosmic web, but is instead dominated by shocked shells of emission surrounding dark matter halos and resembles a large, undetected population of radio relics. We also show that, with accurate kernels, the cosmic web radio emission is clearly detectable by cross-correlation techniques and this signal is separable from the embedded extragalactic radio population. We offer the simulation as a public resource towards the development of techniques for detecting and measuring the synchrotron cosmic web.

Precise instrumental calibration is of crucial importance to 21-cm cosmology experiments. The Murchison Widefield Array’s (MWA) Phase II compact configuration offers us opportunities for both redundant calibration and sky-based calibration algorithms; using the two in tandem is a potential approach to mitigate calibration errors caused by inaccurate sky models. The MWA Epoch of Reionization (EoR) experiment targets three patches of the sky (dubbed EoR0, EoR1, and EoR2) with deep observations. Previous work in Li et al. (2018) and (2019) studied the effect of tandem calibration on the EoR0 field and found that it yielded no significant improvement in the power spectrum (PS) over sky-based calibration alone. In this work, we apply similar techniques to the EoR1 field and find a distinct result: the improvements in the PS from tandem calibration are significant. To understand this result, we analyse both the calibration solutions themselves and the effects on the PS over three nights of EoR1 observations. We conclude that the presence of the bright radio galaxy Fornax A in EoR1 degrades the performance of sky-based calibration, which in turn enables redundant calibration to have a larger impact. These results suggest that redundant calibration can indeed mitigate some level of model incompleteness error.

We follow up on a report by Vacca et al. (2018) of 28 candidate large-scale diffuse synchrotron sources in an 8° × 8° area of the sky (centred at RA 5h0m0s; Dec 5°48ʹ00ʹʹ). These sources were originally observed at 1.4 GHz using a combination of the single-dish Sardinia Radio Telescope and archival NRAO VLA Sky Survey data. They are in an area with nine massive galaxy clusters at $z \approx 0.1$ and are candidates for the first detection of filaments of the synchrotron cosmic web. We attempt to verify these candidate sources with lower frequency observations at 154 MHz with the Murchison Widefield Array and at 887 MHz with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). We use a novel technique to calculate the surface brightness sensitivity of these instruments to show that our lower frequency observations, and in particular those by ASKAP, are ideally suited to detect large-scale, extended synchrotron emission. Nonetheless, we are forced to conclude that none of these sources are likely to be synchrotron in origin or associated with the cosmic web.

We present the results of an approximately 6 100 deg2 104–196 MHz radio sky survey performed with the Murchison Widefield Array during instrument commissioning between 2012 September and 2012 December: the MWACS. The data were taken as meridian drift scans with two different 32-antenna sub-arrays that were available during the commissioning period. The survey covers approximately 20.5 h < RA < 8.5 h, − 58° < Dec < −14°over three frequency bands centred on 119, 150 and 180 MHz, with image resolutions of 6–3 arcmin. The catalogue has 3 arcmin angular resolution and a typical noise level of 40 mJy beam− 1, with reduced sensitivity near the field boundaries and bright sources. We describe the data reduction strategy, based upon mosaicked snapshots, flux density calibration, and source-finding method. We present a catalogue of flux density and spectral index measurements for 14 110 sources, extracted from the mosaic, 1 247 of which are sub-components of complexes of sources.