Multiresolution internal template cleaning: an application to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7-yr polarization data

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation data obtained by different experiments contain, besides the desired signal, a superposition of microwave sky contributions. Using a wavelet decomposition on the sphere, we present a fast and robust method to recover the CMB signal from microwave maps. We present an application to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) polarization data, which shows its good performance, particularly in very polluted regions of the sky. The applied wavelet has the advantages that it requires little computational time in its calculations, it is adapted to the HEALPIX pixelization scheme and it offers the possibility of multiresolution analysis. The decomposition is implemented as part of a fully internal template fitting method, minimizing the variance of the resulting map at each scale. Using a χ2 characterization of the noise, we find that the residuals of the cleaned maps are compatible with those expected from the instrumental noise. The maps are also comparable to those obtained from the WMAP team, but in our case we do not make use of external data sets. In addition, at low resolution, our cleaned maps present a lower level of noise. The E-mode power spectrum [fórmula] is computed at high and low resolutions, and a cross-power spectrum [fórmula] is also calculated from the foreground reduced maps of temperature given by WMAP and our cleaned maps of polarization at high resolution. These spectra are consistent with the power spectra supplied by the WMAP team. We detect the E-mode acoustic peak at ℓ∼ 400, as predicted by the standard ΛCDM model. The B-mode power spectrum [fórmula] is compatible with zero.We acknowledge partial financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through projects AYA2010-21766-C03-01 and Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2010-00064. RFC is grateful for financial support from Spanish CSIC for a JAE-predoc fellowship. PV is grateful for financial support from the Ramón y Cajal program. We are grateful for the computer resources, technical expertise and assistance provided by the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) node at the University of Cantabria.We are grateful for the use of LAMBDA and the assistance provided by Benjamin Gold by e-mail. The HEALPIX package was used throughout the data analysis (G´orski et al. 2005)

Using CMB polarization to constrain the anomalous nature of the Cold Spot with an incomplete-sky coverage

Recent results of the ESA Planck satellite have confirmed the existence of some anomalies in the statistical distribution of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. One of the most intriguing anomalies is the cold spot, first detected in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data by Vielva et al. In a later paper, Vielva et al. (2011) developed a method to probe the anomalous nature of the cold spot by using the cross-correlation of temperature and polarization of the CMB fluctuations. Whereas this work was built under the assumption of analysing full-sky data, in this paper we extend such approach to deal with realistic data sets with a partial-sky coverage. In particular, we exploit the radial and tangential polarization patterns around temperature spots. We explore the capacity of the method to distinguish between a standard Gaussian CMB scenario and an alternative one, in which the cold spot arises from a physical process that does not present correlated polarization features (e.g. topological defects), as a function of the instrumental-noise level. Moreover, we consider more in detail the case of an ideal noise-free experiment and the ones with the expected instrumental-noise levels in QUIJOTE and Planck experiments. We also present an application to the 9-year WMAP data, without being able to obtain firm conclusions, with a significance level of 32 per cent. In the ideal case, the alternative scenario could be rejected at a significance level of around 1 per cent, whereas for expected noise levels of QUIJOTE and Planck experiments the corresponding significance levels are 1.5 and 7.4 per cent, respectively

Planck 2018 results: II. Low Frequency Instrument data processing

We present a final description of the data-processing pipeline for the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI), implemented for the 2018 data release. Several improvements have been made with respect to the previous release, especially in the calibration process and in the correction of instrumental features such as the effects of nonlinearity in the response of the analogue-to-digital converters. We provide a brief pedagogical introduction to the complete pipeline, as well as a detailed description of the important changes implemented. Self-consistency of the pipeline is demonstrated using dedicated simulations and null tests. We present the final version of the LFI full sky maps at 30, 44, and 70 GHz, both in temperature and polarization, together with a refined estimate of the solar dipole and a final assessment of the main LFI instrumental parameters.Acknowledgements. The Planck Collaboration acknowledges the support of: ESA; CNES and CNRS/INSU-IN2P3-INP (France); ASI, CNR, and INAF (Italy); NASA and DoE (USA); STFC and UKSA (UK); CSIC, MINECO, JA, and RES (Spain); Tekes, AoF, and CSC (Finland); DLR and MPG (Germany); CSA (Canada); DTU Space (Denmark); SER/SSO (Switzerland); RCN (Norway); SFI (Ireland); FCT/MCTES (Portugal); and ERC and PRACE (EU). A description of the Planck Collaboration and a list of its members, indicating which technical or scientific activities they have been involved in, can be found at http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/. The simulations for systematics assessment used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE, Towns et al. 2014), supported by National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1548562, in particular the Comet Supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center through allocation AST160021: “Monte Carlo simulations for calibration uncertainty of the Planck mission”, PI A. Zonca, CoPI P. Meinhold

Recent results and perspectives on cosmology and fundamental physics from microwave surveys

Recent cosmic microwave background data in temperature and polarization have reached high precision in estimating all the parameters that describe the current so-called standard cosmological model. Recent results about the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect from cosmic microwave background anisotropies, galaxy surveys, and their cross-correlations are presented. Looking at fine signatures in the cosmic microwave background, such as the lack of power at low multipoles, the primordial power spectrum and the bounds on non-Gaussianities, complemented by galaxy surveys, we discuss inflationary physics and the generation of primordial perturbations in the early Universe. Three important topics in particle physics, the bounds on neutrinos masses and parameters, on thermal axion mass and on the neutron lifetime derived from cosmological data are reviewed, with attention to the comparison with laboratory experiment results. Recent results from cosmic polarization rotation analyses aimed at testing the Einstein equivalence principle are presented. Finally, we discuss the perspectives of next radio facilities for the improvement of the analysis of future cosmic microwave background spectral distortion experiments.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. Review Article. International Journal of Modern Physics D, in press. [Will appear also on the proceedings of the Fourteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting University of Rome "La Sapienza" - Rome, July 12-18, 2015 (http://www.icra.it/mg/mg14/), eds. Robert T. Jantzen, Kjell Rosquist, Remo Ruffini. World Scientific, Singapore

Planck 2018 results: XII. Galactic astrophysics using polarized dust emission

Observations of the submillimetre emission from Galactic dust, in both total intensity I and polarization, have received tremendous interest thanks to the Planck full-sky maps. In this paper we make use of such full-sky maps of dust polarized emission produced from the third public release of Planck data. As the basis for expanding on astrophysical studies of the polarized thermal emission from Galactic dust, we present full-sky maps of the dust polarization fraction p, polarization angle ?, and dispersion function of polarization angles ??. The joint distribution (one-point statistics) of p and NH confirms that the mean and maximum polarization fractions decrease with increasing NH. The uncertainty on the maximum observed polarization fraction, pmax = 22.0?1.4+3.5% at 353 GHz and 80? resolution, is dominated by the uncertainty on the Galactic emission zero level in total intensity, in particular towards diffuse lines of sight at high Galactic latitudes. Furthermore, the inverse behaviour between p and ?? found earlier is seen to be present at high latitudes. This follows the ?????p?1 relationship expected from models of the polarized sky (including numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamical turbulence) that include effects from only the topology of the turbulent magnetic field, but otherwise have uniform alignment and dust properties. Thus, the statistical properties of p, ?, and ?? for the most part reflect the structure of the Galactic magnetic field. Nevertheless, we search for potential signatures of varying grain alignment and dust properties. First, we analyse the product map ???×?p, looking for residual trends. While the polarization fraction p decreases by a factor of 3?4 between NH?=?1020?cm?2 and NH?=?2?×?1022?cm?2, out of the Galactic plane, this product ???×?p only decreases by about 25%. Because ?? is independent of the grain alignment efficiency, this demonstrates that the systematic decrease in p with NH is determined mostly by the magnetic-field structure and not by a drop in grain alignment. This systematic trend is observed both in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) and in molecular clouds of the Gould Belt. Second, we look for a dependence of polarization properties on the dust temperature, as we would expect from the radiative alignment torque (RAT) theory. We find no systematic trend of ???×?p with the dust temperature Td, whether in the diffuse ISM or in the molecular clouds of the Gould Belt. In the diffuse ISM, lines of sight with high polarization fraction p and low polarization angle dispersion ?? tend, on the contrary, to have colder dust than lines of sight with low p and high ??. We also compare the Planck thermal dust polarization with starlight polarization data in the visible at high Galactic latitudes. The agreement in polarization angles is remarkable, and is consistent with what we expect from the noise and the observed dispersion of polarization angles in the visible on the scale of the Planck beam. The two polarization emission-to-extinction ratios, RP/p and RS/V, which primarily characterize dust optical properties, have only a weak dependence on the column density, and converge towards the values previously determined for translucent lines of sight. We also determine an upper limit for the polarization fraction in extinction, pV/E(B???V), of 13% at high Galactic latitude, compatible with the polarization fraction p???20% observed at 353 GHz. Taken together, these results provide strong constraints for models of Galactic dust in diffuse gas

Planck 2018 results: IV. Diffuse component separation

We present full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and polarized synchrotron and thermal dust emission, derived from the third set of Planck frequency maps. These products have significantly lower contamination from instrumental systematic effects than previous versions. The methodologies used to derive these maps follow closely those described in earlier papers, adopting four methods (Commander, NILC, SEVEM, and SMICA) to extract the CMB component, as well as three methods (Commander, GNILC, and SMICA) to extract astrophysical components. Our revised CMB temperature maps agree with corresponding products in the Planck 2015 delivery, whereas the polarization maps exhibit significantly lower large-scale power, reflecting the improved data processing described in companion papers; however, the noise properties of the resulting data products are complicated, and the best available end-to-end simulations exhibit relative biases with respect to the data at the few percent level. Using these maps, we are for the first time able to fit the spectral index of thermal dust independently over 3° regions. We derive a conservative estimate of the mean spectral index of polarized thermal dust emission of ?d?=?1.55? ± ?0.05, where the uncertainty marginalizes both over all known systematic uncertainties and different estimation techniques. For polarized synchrotron emission, we find a mean spectral index of ?s?=??3.1? ± ?0.1, consistent with previously reported measurements. We note that the current data processing does not allow for construction of unbiased single-bolometer maps, and this limits our ability to extract CO emission and correlated components. The foreground results for intensity derived in this paper therefore do not supersede corresponding Planck 2015 products. For polarization the new results supersede the corresponding 2015 products in all respects.The Planck Collaboration acknowledges the support of: ESA; CNES, and CNRS/INSU-IN2P3-INP (France); ASI, CNR, and INAF (Italy); NASA and DoE (USA); STFC and UKSA (UK); CSIC, MINECO, JA, and RES (Spain); Tekes, AoF, and CSC (Finland); DLR and MPG (Germany); CSA (Canada); DTU Space (Denmark); SER/SSO (Switzerland); RCN (Norway); SFI (Ireland); FCT/MCTES (Portugal); ERC and PRACE (EU). A description of the Planck Collaboration and a list of its members, indicating which technical or scientific activities they have been involved in, can be found at http: //www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/planck-collaboration. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement numbers 687312, 776282 and 772253

Planck intermediate results VI. The dynamical structure of PLCKG214.6+37.0, a Planck discovered triple system of galaxy clusters

The survey of galaxy clusters performed by Planck through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect has already discovered many interesting objects, thanks to its full sky coverage. One of the SZcandidates detected in the early months of the mission near to the signal-to-noise threshold, PLCKG214.6+37.0, was later revealed by XMM-Newton to be a triple system of galaxy clusters. We present the results from a deep XMM-Newton re-observation of PLCKG214.6+37.0, part of a multi-wavelength programme to investigate Planck discovered superclusters. The characterisation of the physical properties of the three components has allowed us to build a template model to extract the total SZ signal of this system with Planck data. We have partly reconciled the discrepancy between the expected SZ signal derived from X-rays and the observed one, which are now consistent within 1.2?. We measured the redshift of the three components with the iron lines in the X-ray spectrum, and confirm that the three clumps are likely part of the same supercluster structure. The analysis of the dynamical state of the three components, as well as the absence of detectable excess X-ray emission, suggests that we are witnessing the formation of a massive cluster at an early phase of interaction

Planck intermediate results XI. The gas content of dark matter halos: The sunyaev-zeldovich-stellar mass relation for locally brightest galaxies

We present the scaling relation between Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal and stellar mass for almost 260,000 locally brightest galaxies (LBGs) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). These are predominantly the central galaxies of their dark matter halos. We calibrate the stellar-to-halo mass conversion using realistic mock catalogues based on the Millennium Simulation. Applying a multi-frequency matched filter to the Planck data for each LBG, and averaging the results in bins of stellar mass, we measure the mean SZ signal down to M? ~ 2 × 1011 M?, with a clear indication of signal at even lower stellar mass. We derive the scaling relation between SZ signal and halo mass by assigning halo properties from our mock catalogues to the real LBGs and simulating the Planck observation process. This relation shows no evidence for deviation from a power law over a halo mass range extending from rich clusters down to M500 ~ 2 × 1013 M?, and there is a clear indication of signal down to M500 ~ 4 × 1012 M?. Planck?s SZdetections in such low-mass halos imply that about a quarter of all baryons have now been seen in the form of hot halo gas, and that this gas must be less concentrated than the dark matter in such halos in order to remain consistent with X-ray observations. At the high-mass end, the measured SZ signal is 20% lower than found from observations of X-ray clusters, a difference consistent with the magnitude of Malmquist bias effects that were previously estimated for the X-ray sample

Planck intermediate results III.The relation between galaxy cluster mass and Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal

We examine the relation between the galaxy cluster mass M and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect signal for a sample of 19 objects for which weak lensing (WL) mass measurements obtained from Subaru Telescope data are available in the literature. Hydrostatic X-ray masses are derived from XMM-Newton archive data, and the SZ effect signal is measured from Planck all-sky survey data. We find an relation that is consistent in slope and normalisation with previous determinations using weak lensing masses; however, there is a normalisation offset with respect to previous measures based on hydrostatic X-ray mass-proxy relations. We verify that our SZ effect measurements are in excellent agreement with previous determinations from Planck data. For the present sample, the hydrostatic X-ray masses at R500 are on average ~20 percent larger than the corresponding weak lensing masses, which is contrary to expectations. We show that the mass discrepancy is driven by a difference in mass concentration as measured by the two methods and, for the present sample, that the mass discrepancy and difference in mass concentration are especially large for disturbed systems. The mass discrepancy is also linked to the offset in centres used by the X-ray and weak lensing analyses, which again is most important in disturbed systems. We outline several approaches that are needed to help achieve convergence in cluster mass measurement with X-ray and weak lensing observations

Planck intermediate results: II. Comparison of sunyaev-zeldovich measurements from planck and from the arcminute microkelvin imager for 11 galaxy clusters

A comparison is presented of Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements for 11 galaxy clusters as obtained by Planck and by the ground-based interferometer, the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager. Assuming a universal spherically-symmetric Generalised Navarro, Frenk and White (GNFW) model for the cluster gas pressure profile, we jointly constrain the integrated Compton-Y parameter (Y500) and the scale radius (?500) of each cluster. Our resulting constraints in the Y500 ? ?500 2D parameter space derived from the two instruments overlap significantly for eight of the clusters, although, overall, there is a tendency for AMI to find the Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal to be smaller in angular size and fainter than Planck. Significant discrepancies exist for the three remaining clusters in the sample, namely A1413, A1914, and the newly-discovered Planck cluster PLCKESZ G139.59+24.18. The robustness of the analysis of both the Planck and AMI data is demonstrated through the use of detailed simulations, which also discount confusion from residual point (radio) sources and from diffuse astrophysical foregrounds as possible explanations for the discrepancies found. For a subset of our cluster sample, we have investigated the dependence of our results on the assumed pressure profile by repeating the analysis adopting the best-fitting GNFW profile shape which best matches X-ray observations. Adopting the best-fitting profile shape from the X-ray data does not, in general, resolve the discrepancies found in this subset of five clusters. Though based on a small sample, our results suggest that the adopted GNFW model may not be sufficiently flexible to describe clusters universally