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Register a new userSimple foreground cleaning algorithm for detecting primordial B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background
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We reconsider the pixel-based, template polarized foreground removal method within the context of a next-generation, low-noise, low-resolution (0.5 degree FWHM) space-borne experiment measuring the cosmological B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This method was put forward by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team and further studied by Efstathiou et al. We need at least 3 frequency channels: one is used for extracting the CMB signal, whereas the other two are used to estimate the spatial distribution of the polarized dust and synchrotron emission. No external template maps are used. We extract the tensor-to-scalar ratio (r) from simulated sky maps consisting of CMB, noise (2 micro K arcmin), and a foreground model, and find that, even for the simplest 3-frequency configuration with 60, 100, and 240 GHz, the residual bias in r is as small as Delta r~0.002. This bias is dominated by the residual synchrotron emission due to spatial variations of the synchrotron spectral index. With an extended mask with fsky=0.5, the bias is reduced further down to <0.001.
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In order to extract cosmological information from observations of the millimeter and submillimeter sky, foreground components must first be removed to produce an estimate of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We developed a machine-learning approach for doing so for full-sky temperature maps of the millimeter and submillimeter sky. We constructed a Bayesian spherical convolutional neural network architecture to produce a model that captures both spectral and morphological aspects of the foregrounds. Additionally, the model outputs a per-pixel error estimate that incorporates both statistical and model uncertainties. The model was then trained using simulations that incorporated knowledge of these foreground components that was available at the time of the launch of the Planck satellite. On simulated maps, the CMB is recovered with a mean absolute difference of $<4mu$K over the full sky after masking map pixels with a predicted standard error of $>50mu$K; the angular power spectrum is also accurately recovered. Once validated with the simulations, this model was applied to Planck temperature observations from its 70GHz through 857GHz channels to produce a foreground-cleaned CMB map at a Healpix map resolution of NSIDE=512. Furthermore, we demonstrate the utility of the technique for evaluating how well different simulations match observations, particularly in regard to the modeling of thermal dust.
STPpol, POLARBEAR and BICEP2 have recently measured the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization in various sky regions of several tens of square degrees and obtained BB power spectra in the multipole range 20-3000, detecting the components due to gravitational lensing and to inflationary gravitational waves. We analyze jointly the results of these three experiments and propose modifications of their analysis of the spectra to include in the model, in addition to the gravitational lensing and the inflationary gravitational waves components, also the effects induced by the cosmic polarization rotation (CPR), if it exists within current upper limits. Although in principle our analysis would lead also to new constraints on CPR, in practice these can only be given on its fluctuations <{delta}{alpha}^2>, since constraints on its mean angle are inhibited by the de-rotation which is applied by current CMB polarization experiments, in order to cope with the insufficient calibration of the polarization angle. The combined data fits from all three experiments (with 29% CPR-SPTpol correlation, depending on theoretical model) gives constraint <{delta}{alpha}^2>^1/2 < 27.3 mrad (1.56{deg}) with r = 0.194 pm 0.033. These results show that the present data are consistent with no CPR detection and the constraint on CPR fluctuation is about 1.5{deg}. This method of constraining the cosmic polarization rotation is new, is complementary to previous tests, which use the radio and optical/UV polarization of radio galaxies and the CMB E-mode polarization, and adds a new constraint for the sky areas observed by SPTpol, POLARBEAR and BICEP2.
Isotropy-violation statistics can highlight polarized galactic foregrounds that contaminate primordial $B$-modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We propose a particular isotropy-violation test and apply it to polarized Planck 353 GHz data, constructing an map that indicates $B$-mode foreground dust power over the sky. We build our main isotropy test in harmonic space via the bipolar spherical harmonic basis, and our method helps us to identify the least-contaminated directions. By this measure, there are regions of low foreground in and around the BICEP field, near the South Galactic Pole, and in the Northern Galactic Hemisphere. There is also a possible foreground feature in the BICEP field. We compare our results to those based on the local power spectrum, which is computed on discs using a version of the method of Planck Int.~XXX (2016). The discs method is closely related to our isotropy-violation diagnostic. We pay special care to the treatment of noise, including chance correlations with the foregrounds. Currently we use our isotropy tool to assess the cleanest portions of the sky, but in the future such methods will allow isotropy-based null tests for foreground contamination in maps purported to measure primordial $B$-modes, particularly in cases of limited frequency coverage.
We estimate the B-polarisation induced in the Cosmic Microwave Background by the non-linear evolution of density perturbations. Using the second-order Boltzmann code SONG, our analysis incorporates, for the first time, all physical effects at recombination. We also include novel contributions from the redshift part of the Boltzmann equation and from the bolometric definition of the temperature in the presence of polarisation. The remaining line-of-sight terms (lensing and time-delay) have previously been studied and must be calculated non-perturbatively. The intrinsic B-mode polarisation is present independent of the initial conditions and might contaminate the signal from primordial gravitational waves. We find this contamination to be comparable to a primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio of $rsimeq10^{-7}$ at the angular scale $ellsimeq100,$, where the primordial signal peaks, and $rsimeq 5 cdot 10^{-5}$ at $ellsimeq700,$, where the intrinsic signal peaks. Therefore, we conclude that the intrinsic B-polarisation from second-order effects is not likely to contaminate future searches of primordial gravitational waves.
Analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) datasets typically requires some filtering of the raw time-ordered data. Filtering is frequently used to minimize the impact of low frequency noise, atmospheric contributions and/or scan synchronous signals on the resulting maps. In this work we explicitly construct a general filtering operator, which can unambiguously remove any set of unwanted modes in the data, and then amend the map-making procedure in order to incorporate and correct for it. We show that such an approach is mathematically equivalent to the solution of a problem in which the sky signal and unwanted modes are estimated simultaneously and the latter are marginalized over. We investigate the conditions under which this amended map-making procedure can render an unbiased estimate of the sky signal in realistic circumstances. We then study the effects of time-domain filtering on the noise correlation structure in the map domain, as well as impact it may have on the performance of the popular pseudo-spectrum estimators. We conclude that although maps produced by the proposed estimators arguably provide the most faithful representation of the sky possible given the data, they may not straightforwardly lead to the best constraints on the power spectra of the underlying sky signal and special care may need to be taken to ensure this is the case. By contrast, simplified map-makers which do not explicitly correct for time-domain filtering, but leave it to subsequent steps in the data analysis, may perform equally well and be easier and faster to implement. We focus on polarization-sensitive measurements targeting the B-mode component of the CMB signal and apply the proposed methods to realistic simulations based on characteristics of an actual CMB polarization experiment, POLARBEAR.
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