The GMRT Epoch of Reionization experiment: a new upper limit on the neutral hydrogen power spectrum at z ≈ 8.6

We present a new upper limit to the 21-cm power spectrum during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) which constrains reionization models with an unheated IGM. The GMRT-EoR experiment is an ongoing effort to make a statistical detection of the power spectrum of 21-cm neutral hydrogen emission at redshift z similar to 9. Data from this redshift constrain models of the EoR, the end of the Dark Ages arising from the formation of the first bright UV sources, probably stars or mini-quasars. We present results from approximately 50 h of observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India from 2007 December. We describe radio-frequency interference (RFI) localization schemes which allow bright sources on the ground to be identified and physically removed in addition to automated flagging. Singular-value decomposition is used to remove the remaining broad-band RFI by identifying ground sources with large eigenvalues. Foregrounds are modelled using a piecewise linear filter and the power spectrum is measured using cross-correlations of foreground-subtracted images.