182 research outputs found
Spatial variations in the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission in the 9 yr WMAP sky maps
We estimate the spectral index, beta, of polarized synchrotron emission as
observed in the 9 yr WMAP sky maps using two methods, linear regression ("T-T
plot") and maximum likelihood. We partition the sky into 24 disjoint sky
regions, and evaluate the spectral index for all polarization angles between 0
deg and 85 deg in steps of 5. Averaging over polarization angles, we derive a
mean spectral index of beta_all-sky=-2.99+-0.01 in the frequency range of 23-33
GHz. We find that the synchrotron spectral index steepens by 0.14 from low to
high Galactic latitudes, in agreement with previous studies, with mean spectral
indices of beta_plane=-2.98+-0.01 and beta_high-lat=-3.12+-0.04. In addition,
we find a significant longitudinal variation along the Galactic plane with a
steeper spectral index toward the Galactic center and anticenter than toward
the Galactic spiral arms. This can be well modeled by an offset sinusoidal,
beta(l)=-2.85+0.17sin(2l-90). Finally, we study synchrotron emission in the
BICEP2 field, in an attempt to understand whether the claimed detection of
large-scale B-mode polarization could be explained in terms of synchrotron
contamination. Adopting a spectral index of beta=-3.12, typical for high
Galactic latitudes, we find that the most likely bias corresponds to about 2%
of the reported signal (r=0.003). The flattest index allowed by the data in
this region is beta=-2.5, and under the assumption of a straight power-law
frequency spectrum, we find that synchrotron emission can account for at most
20% of the reported BICEP2 signal.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, updated to match version published in Ap
The effect of systematics on polarized spectral indices
We study four particularly bright polarized compact objects (Tau A, Virgo A,
3C273 and Fornax A) in the 7-year WMAP sky maps, with the goal of understanding
potential systematics involved in estimation of foreground spectral indices. We
estimate the spectral index, the polarization angle, the polarization fraction
and apparent size and shape of these objects when smoothed to a nominal
resolution of 1 degree FWHM. Second, we compute the spectral index as a
function of polarization orientation, alpha. Because these objects are
approximately point sources with constant polarization angle, this function
should be constant in the absence of systematics. However, computing it for the
K- and Ka-band WMAP data we find strong index variations for all four sources.
For Tau A, we find a spectral index beta=-2.59+-0.03 for alpha=30 degrees, and
beta=-2.03+-0.01 for alpha=50 degrees. On the other hand, the spectral index
between Ka and Q band is found to be stable. A simple elliptical Gaussian toy
model with parameters matching those observed in Tau A reproduces the observed
signal, and shows that the spectral index is in particular sensitive to the
detector polarization angle. Based on these findings, we first conclude that
estimation of spectral indices with the WMAP K-band polarization data at 1
degree scales is not robust. Second, we note that these issues may be of
concern for ground-based and sub-orbital experiments that use the WMAP
polarization measurements of Tau A for calibration of gain and polarization
angles.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ; new figure and expanded
conclusio
Constraints on the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission from WMAP and Faraday-corrected S-PASS data
We constrain the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission, ,
by correlating the recently released 2.3 GHz S-Band Polarization All Sky Survey
(S-PASS) data with the 23 GHz 9-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP) sky maps. We sub-divide the S-PASS field, which covers the Southern
Ecliptic hemisphere, into regions, and estimate
the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission within each region using a
simple but robust T-T plot technique. Three different versions of the S-PASS
data are considered, corresponding to either no correction for Faraday
rotation; Faraday correction based on the rotation measure model presented by
the S-PASS team; or Faraday correction based on a rotation measure model
presented by Hutschenreuter and En{\ss}lin. We find that the correlation
between S-PASS and WMAP is strongest when applying the S-PASS model. Adopting
this correction model, we find that the mean spectral index of polarized
synchrotron emission gradually steepens from at low
Galactic latitudes to at high Galactic latitudes, in good
agreement with previously published results. Finally, we consider two special
cases defined by the BICEP2 and SPIDER fields, and obtain mean estimates of
and , respectively.
Adopting the WMAP 23 GHz sky map bandpass filtered to including angular scales
only between and as a spatial template, we constrain
the root-mean-square synchrotron polarization amplitude to be less than
() at 90 GHz (150 GHz) for the BICEP2 field,
corresponding roughly to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of
(), respectively. Very similar constraints are obtained for the
SPIDER field.Comment: 14 pages, 13 Figures, to be submitted to A&
A Monte Carlo comparison between template-based and Wiener-filter CMB dipole estimators
We review and compare two different CMB dipole estimators discussed in the
literature, and assess their performances through Monte Carlo simulations. The
first method amounts to simple template regression with partial sky data, while
the second method is an optimal Wiener filter (or Gibbs sampling)
implementation. The main difference between the two methods is that the latter
approach takes into account correlations with higher-order CMB temperature
fluctuations that arise from non-orthogonal spherical harmonics on an
incomplete sky, which for recent CMB data sets (such as Planck) is the dominant
source of uncertainty. For an accepted sky fraction of 81% and an angular CMB
power spectrum corresponding to the best-fit Planck 2018 CDM model, we
find that the uncertainty on the recovered dipole amplitude is about six times
smaller for the Wiener filter approach than for the template approach,
corresponding to 0.5 and 3K, respectively. Similar relative differences
are found for the corresponding directional parameters and other sky fractions.
We note that the Wiener filter algorithm is generally applicable to any dipole
estimation problem on an incomplete sky, as long as a statistical and
computationally tractable model is available for the unmasked higher-order
fluctuations. The methodology described in this paper forms the numerical basis
for the most recent determination of the CMB solar dipole from Planck, as
summarized by arXiv:2007.04997.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A&
B-mode polarization forecasts for GreenPol
We present tensor-to-scalar ratio forecasts for GreenPol, a hypothetical
ground-based B-mode experiment aiming to survey the cleanest regions of the
Northern Galactic hemisphere at five frequencies between 10 and 44 GHz. Its
primary science goal would be to measure large-scale CMB polarization
fluctuations at multipoles , and thereby constrain the
primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio. The observations for the suggested
experiment would take place at the Summit Station (72deg N, 38deg W) on
Greenland, at an altitude of 3216 meters above sea level. In this paper we
simulate various experimental setups, and derive limits on the tensor-to-scalar
ratio after CMB component separation using a Bayesian component separation
implementation called Commander. When combining the proposed experiment with
Planck HFI observations for constraining polarized thermal dust emission, we
find a projected limit of r<0.02 at 95 % confidence for the baseline
configuration. This limit is very robust with respect to a range of important
experimental parameters, including sky coverage, detector weighting, foreground
priors etc. Overall, GreenPol would have the possibility to provide deep CMB
polarization measurements of the Northern Galactic hemisphere at low
frequencies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. To be submitted to A&
Foreground Separation and Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves with the PICO Space Mission
PICO is a concept for a NASA probe-scale mission aiming to detect or
constrain the tensor to scalar ratio , a parameter that quantifies the
amplitude of inflationary gravity waves. We carry out map-based component
separation on simulations with five foreground models and input values
and . We forecast determinations using a
Gaussian likelihood assuming either no delensing or a residual lensing factor
= 27%. By implementing the first full-sky, post
component-separation, map-domain delensing, we show that PICO should be able to
achieve = 22% - 24%. For four of the five foreground models we
find that PICO would be able to set the constraints r < 1.3 \times 10^{-4}
\,\, \mbox{to} \,\, r <2.7 \times 10^{-4}\, (95\%) if , the
strongest constraints of any foreseeable instrument. For these models,
is recovered with confidence levels between and
. We find weaker, and in some cases significantly biased, upper
limits when removing few low or high frequency bands. The fifth model gives a
detection when and a bias with .
However, by correlating determinations from many small 2.5% sky areas with
the mission's 555 GHz data we identify and mitigate the bias. This analysis
underscores the importance of large sky coverage. We show that when only low
multipoles are used, the non-Gaussian shape of the true
likelihood gives uncertainties that are on average 30% larger than a Gaussian
approximation.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, published in JCA
Cosmoglobe DR1. III. First full-sky model of polarized synchrotron emission from all WMAP and Planck LFI data
We present the first model of full-sky polarized synchrotron emission that is
derived from all WMAP and Planck LFI frequency maps. The basis of this analysis
is the set of end-to-end reprocessed Cosmoglobe Data Release 1 sky maps
presented in a companion paper, which have significantly lower instrumental
systematics than the legacy products from each experiment. We find that the
resulting polarized synchrotron amplitude map has an average noise rms of
at 30 GHz and FWHM, which is 30% lower than
the recently released BeyondPlanck model that included only LFI+WMAP Ka-V data,
and 29% lower than the WMAP K-band map alone. The mean -to- power
spectrum ratio is , with amplitudes consistent with those measured
previously by Planck and QUIJOTE. Assuming a power law model for the
synchrotron spectral energy distribution, and using the -- plot method,
we find a full-sky inverse noise-variance weighted mean of
between Cosmoglobe DR1 K-band and 30 GHz, in
good agreement with previous estimates. In summary, the novel Cosmoglobe DR1
synchrotron model is both more sensitive and systematically cleaner than
similar previous models, and it has a more complete error description that is
defined by a set of Monte Carlo posterior samples. We believe that these
products are preferable over previous Planck and WMAP products for all
synchrotron-related scientific applications, including simulation, forecasting
and component separation.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, submitted to A&
Characterization of foreground emission on degree angular scales for CMB B-mode observations: Thermal dust and synchrotron signal from Planck and WMAP data
We quantify the contamination from polarized diffuse Galactic synchrotron and thermal dust emissions to the B modes of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies on the degree angular scale, using data from the Planck and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellites. We compute power spectra of foreground polarized emissions in 352 circular sky patches located at Galactic latitude | b | > 20\ub0, each of which covers about 1.5% of the sky. We make use of the spectral properties derived from Planck and WMAP data to extrapolate, in frequency, the amplitude of synchrotron and thermal dust B-mode spectra in the multipole bin centered at \u2113 43 80. In this way we estimate the amplitude and frequency of the foreground minimum for each analyzed region. We detect both dust and synchrotron signal on degree angular scales and at a 3\u3c3 confidence level in 28 regions. Here the minimum of the foreground emission is found at frequencies between 60 and 100 GHz with an amplitude expressed in terms of the equivalent tensor-to-scalar ratio, rFG,min, between 3c0.06 and 3c1. Some of these regions are located at high Galactic latitudes in areas close to the ones that are being observed by suborbital experiments. In all the other sky patches where synchrotron or dust B modes are not detectable with the required confidence, we put upper limits on the minimum foreground contamination and find values of rFG,min between 3c0.05 and 3c1.5 in the frequency range 60-90 GHz. Our results indicate that, with the current sensitivity at low frequency, it is not possible to exclude the presence of synchrotron contamination to CMB cosmological B modes at the level requested to measure a gravitational waves signal with r 43 0.01 at frequency 72 100 GHz anywhere. Therefore, more accurate data are essential in order to better characterize the synchrotron polarized component and, eventually, to remove its contamination to CMB signal through foreground cleaning. \ua9 2016 ESO
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