70,938 research outputs found
Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy is our richest source of
cosmological information; the standard cosmological model was largely
established thanks to study of the temperature anisotropies. By the end of the
decade, the Planck satellite will close this important chapter and move us
deeper into the new frontier of polarization measurements. Numerous
ground--based and balloon--borne experiments are already forging into this new
territory. Besides providing new and independent information on the primordial
density perturbations and cosmological parameters, polarization measurements
offer the potential to detect primordial gravity waves, constrain dark energy
and measure the neutrino mass scale. A vigorous experimental program is
underway worldwide and heading towards a new satellite mission dedicated to CMB
polarization.Comment: Review given at TAUP 2005; References added; Additional reference
Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
Polarization of the cosmic microwave background, though not yet detected,
provides a source of information about cosmological parameters complementary to
temperature fluctuations. This paper provides a complete theoretical treatment
of polarization fluctuations. After a discussion of the physics of
polarization, the Boltzmann equation governing the evolution of the photon
density matrix is derived from quantum theory and applied to microwave
background fluctuations, resulting in a complete set of transport equations for
the Stokes parameters from both scalar and tensor metric perturbations. This
approach is equivalent at lowest order in scattering kinematics to classical
radiative transfer, and provides a general framework for treating the
cosmological evolution of density matrices. The metric perturbations are
treated in the physically appealing longitudinal gauge. Expressions for various
temperature and polarization correlation functions are derived. Detection
prospects and theoretical utility of microwave background polarization are
briefly discussed.Comment: Replaced version corrects factor of 2 error in the Liouville
equation. 24 pages, Postscrip
Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
It has been suggested by a number of authors that the 2.7K cosmic microwave
background (CMB) radiation might have arisen from the radiation from Population
III objects thermalized by conducting cosmic graphite/iron needle-shaped dust.
Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of exceedingly
elongated grains, in existing literature which studies the CMB thermalizing
process they are generally modelled as (1) needle-like spheroids in terms of
the Rayleigh approximation; (2) infinite cylinders; and (3) the antenna theory.
We show here that the Rayleigh approximation is not valid since the Rayleigh
criterion is not satisfied for highly conducting needles. We also show that the
available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not
sufficient to supply the required opacity at long wavelengths to obtain the
observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. If appealing to the antenna
theory, conducting iron needles with exceedingly large elongations (10^4)
appear able to provide sufficient opacity to thermalize the CMB within the iron
density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin
needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ
Polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background
In this work we present an extension of the ROMA map-making code for data
analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background polarization, with particular attention
given to the inflationary polarization B-modes. The new algorithm takes into
account a possible cross-correlated noise component among the different
detectors of a CMB experiment. We tested the code on the observational data of
the BOOMERanG (2003) experiment and we show that we are provided with a better
estimate of the power spectra, in particular the error bars of the BB spectrum
are smaller up to 20% for low multipoles. We point out the general validity of
the new method. A possible future application is the LSPE balloon experiment,
devoted to the observation of polarization at large angular scales.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of the 6th Young Researchers Meeting,
L'Aquila, Oct 12th-14th 201
Kolmogorov cosmic microwave background sky
A new map of the sky representing the degree of randomness in the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) temperature has been obtained. The map based on
estimation of the Kolmogorov stochasticity parameter clearly distinguishes the
contribution of the Galactic disk from the CMB and reveals regions of various
degrees of randomness that can reflect the properties of inhomogeneities in the
Universe. For example, among the high randomness regions is the southern
non-Gaussian anomaly, the Cold Spot, with a stratification expected for the
voids. Existence of its counterpart, a Northern Cold Spot with almost identical
randomness properties among other low-temperature regions is revealed. By its
informative power, Kolmogorov's map can be complementary to the CMB temperature
and polarization sky maps.Comment: A & A (in press), to match the published version, 4 pages, 5 figs, 2
Table
Comparing Cosmic Microwave Background Datasets
To extract reliable cosmic parameters from cosmic microwave background
datasets, it is essential to show that the data are not contaminated by
residual non-cosmological signals. We describe general statistical approaches
to this problem, with an emphasis on the case in which there are two datasets
that can be checked for consistency. A first visual step is the Wiener filter
mapping from one set of data onto the pixel basis of another. For more
quantitative analyses we develop and apply both Bayesian and frequentist
techniques. We define the ``contamination parameter'' and advocate the
calculation of its probability distribution as a means of examining the
consistency of two datasets. The closely related ``probability enhancement
factor'' is shown to be a useful statistic for comparison; it is significantly
better than a number of chi-squared quantities we consider. Our methods can be
used: internally (between different subsets of a dataset) or externally
(between different experiments); for observing regions that completely overlap,
partially overlap or overlap not at all; and for observing strategies that
differ greatly.
We apply the methods to check the consistency (internal and external) of the
MSAM92, MSAM94 and Saskatoon Ring datasets. From comparing the two MSAM
datasets, we find that the most probable level of contamination is 12%, with no
contamination only 1.05 times less probable, and 100% contamination strongly
ruled out at over 2 X 10^5 times less probable. From comparing the 1992 MSAM
flight with the Saskatoon data we find the most probable level of contamination
to be 50%, with no contamination only 1.6 times less probable and 100%
contamination 13 times less probable. [Truncated]Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages which include 16 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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