The Epoch of Reionization 21 cm Bispectrum at z = 8.2 from MWA Data. II. Smooth Component Filtering

Abstract

The 21 cm bispectrum (BS) offers a powerful probe of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), but its observational access is severely hindered by dominant astrophysical foregrounds. Considering Murchison Widefield Array observations at 154.2 MHz (zc = 8.2), we mitigate foregrounds with smooth component filtering (SCF) and estimate the 21 cm BS. We validate the pipeline using a simulated 21 cm signal and show that the input BS is recovered for modes k k f 0.135 Mpc 1 [ ] = . Applied to actual data, the SCF produces substantial foreground suppression, reducing the amplitude of the cylindrical BS B(k1⊥, k2⊥, k3⊥, k1∥, k2∥) by 3–4 orders of magnitude. Artifacts due to missing frequency channels in the data are also suppressed. The resulting EoR window is significantly cleaner at small k⊥. We adopt the region (k1⊥, k2⊥, k3⊥) � 0.026 Mpc−1 and (k1∥, k2∥, k3∥) > 0.135 Mpc−1 to evaluate the 3D spherical BS and constrain the EoR signal. By combining estimates over all triangle shapes, we place the lower and upper limits on the mean cube brightness temperature fluctuations Δ3 . The estimates are consistent with statistical fluctuations from system noise. The most stringent lower limit LL 1.25 10 mK 3 4 3 3 = ( × ) and upper limit UL 1.22 10 mK 3 4 3 3 = ( × ) are obtained at k1 = 0.281 Mpc−1 . Additional observing time will reduce the noise level and enable substantially tighter constraints on the EoR signal.