Antenna characterization for the HIRAX experiment

The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) aims to improve constraints on the dark energy equation of state through measurements of large-scale structure at high redshift (0.8 < z < 2.5), while serving as a state-of-the-art fast radio burst detector. Bright galactic foregrounds contaminate the 400-800 MHz HIRAX frequency band, so meeting the science goals will require precise instrument characterization. In this paper we describe characterization of the HIRAX antenna, focusing on measurements of the antenna beam and antenna noise temperature.