The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment: 256-Element Array Status and Overview
Creators: name: Crichton, Devin
name: Aich, Moumita
name: Amara, Adam
name: Bandura, Kevin
name: Bassett, Bruce A.
name: Bengaly, Carlos
name: Berner, Pascale
name: Bhatporia, Shruti
name: Bucher, Martin
name: Chang, Tzu-Ching
name: Chiang, H. Cynthia
name: Cliche, Jean-Francois
name: Crichton, Carolyn
name: Dave, Romeel
name: de Villiers, Dirk I. L.
name: Dobbs, Matt A.
name: Ewall-Wice, Aaron M.
name: Eyono, Scott
name: Finlay, Christopher
name: Gaddam, Sindhu
name: Ganga, Ken
name: Gayley, Kevin G.
name: Gerodias, Kit
name: Gibbon, Tim
name: Gumba, Austin
name: Gupta, Neeraj
name: Harris, Maile
name: Heilgendorf, Heiko
name: Hilton, Matt
name: Hincks, Adam D.
name: Hitz, Pascal
name: Jalilvand, Mona
name: Julie, Roufurd
name: Kader, Zahra
name: Kania, Joseph
name: Karagiannis, Dionysios
name: Karastergiou, Aris
name: Kesebonye, Kabelo
name: Kittiwisit, Piyanat
name: Kneib, Jean-Paul
name: Knowles, Kenda
name: Kuhn, Emily R.
name: Kunz, Martin
name: Maartens, Roy
name: MacKay, Vincent
name: MacPherson, Stuart
name: Monstein, Christian
name: Moodley, Kavilan
name: Mugundhan, V.
name: Naidoo, Warren
name: Naidu, Arun
name: Newburgh, Laura B.
name: Nistane, Viraj
name: Di Nitto, Amanda
name: Ölçek, Deniz
name: Pan, Xinyu
name: Paul, Sourabh
name: Peterson, Jeffrey B.
name: Pieters, Elizabeth
name: Pieterse, Carla
name: Pillay, Aritha
name: Polish, Anna R.
name: Randrianjanahary, Liantsoa
name: Refregier, Alexandre
name: Renard, Andre
name: Retana-Montenegro, Edwin
name: Rout, Ian H.
name: Russeeawon, Cyndie
name: Sadr, Alireza Vafaei
name: Saliwanchik, Benjamin R. B.
name: Sampath, Ajith
name: Sanghavi, Pranav
name: Santos, Mario G.
name: Sengate, Onkabetse
name: Shaw, J. Richard
name: Sievers, Jonathan L.
name: Smirnov, Oleg M.
name: Smith, Kendrick M.
name: Sob, Ulrich Armel Mbou
name: Srianand, Raghunathan
name: Stronkhorst, Pieter
name: Sunder, Dhaneshwar D.
name: Tartakovsky, Simon
name: Taylor, Russ
name: Timbie, Peter
name: Tolley, Emma E.
name: Townsend, Junaid
name: Tyndall, Will
name: Ungerer, Cornelius
name: van Dyk, Jacques
name: van Vuuren, Gary
name: Vanderlinde, Keith
name: Viant, Thierry
name: Walters, Anthony
name: Wang, Jingying
name: Weltman, Amanda
name: Woudt, Patrick
name: Wulf, Dallas
name: Zavyalov, Anatoly
name: Zhang, Zheng
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is a radio interferometer array currently in development, with an initial 256-element array to be deployed at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) Square Kilometer Array (SKA) site in South Africa. Each of the 6m, $f/0.23$ dishes will be instrumented with dual-polarisation feeds operating over a frequency range of 400-800 MHz. Through intensity mapping of the 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen, HIRAX will provide a cosmological survey of the distribution of large-scale structure over the redshift range of $0.775 &lt; z &lt; 2.55$ over $\sim$15,000 square degrees of the southern sky. The statistical power of such a survey is sufficient to produce $\sim$7 percent constraints on the dark energy equation of state parameter when combined with measurements from the Planck satellite. Additionally, HIRAX will provide a highly competitive platform for radio transient and HI absorber science while enabling a multitude of cross-correlation studies. In this paper, we describe the science goals of the experiment, overview of the design and status of the sub-components of the telescope system, and describe the expected performance of the initial 256-element array as well as the planned future expansion to the final, 1024-element array.
description: 24 pages, 6 figures. Updated to match published version