No Arabic abstract
We study the consistency of 150 GHz data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and 143 GHz data from the Planck satellite over the patch of sky covered by the SPT-SZ survey. We first visually compare the maps and find that the residuals appear consistent with noise after accounting for differences in angular resolution and filtering. We then calculate (1) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of SPT data, (2) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of Planck data, and (3) the cross-spectrum between SPT and Planck data. We find the three cross-spectra are well-fit (PTE = 0.30) by the null hypothesis in which both experiments have measured the same sky map up to a single free calibration parameter---i.e., we find no evidence for systematic errors in either data set. As a by-product, we improve the precision of the SPT calibration by nearly an order of magnitude, from 2.6% to 0.3% in power. Finally, we compare all three cross-spectra to the full-sky Planck power spectrum and find marginal evidence for differences between the power spectra from the SPT-SZ footprint and the full sky. We model these differences as a power law in spherical harmonic multipole number. The best-fit value of this tilt is consistent among the three cross-spectra in the SPT-SZ footprint, implying that the source of this tilt is a sample variance fluctuation in the SPT-SZ region relative to the full sky. The consistency of cosmological parameters derived from these datasets is discussed in a companion paper.
We present a cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map produced from a linear combination of South Pole Telescope (SPT) and emph{Planck} temperature data. The 150 GHz temperature data from the $2500 {rm deg}^{2}$ SPT-SZ survey is combined with the emph{Planck} 143 GHz data in harmonic space, to obtain a temperature map that has a broader $ell$ coverage and less noise than either individual map. Using a quadratic estimator technique on this combined temperature map, we produce a map of the gravitational lensing potential projected along the line of sight. We measure the auto-spectrum of the lensing potential $C_{L}^{phiphi}$, and compare it to the theoretical prediction for a $Lambda$CDM cosmology consistent with the emph{Planck} 2015 data set, finding a best-fit amplitude of $0.95_{-0.06}^{+0.06}({rm Stat.})! _{-0.01}^{+0.01}({rm Sys.})$. The null hypothesis of no lensing is rejected at a significance of $24,sigma$. One important use of such a lensing potential map is in cross-correlations with other dark matter tracers. We demonstrate this cross-correlation in practice by calculating the cross-spectrum, $C_{L}^{phi G}$, between the SPT+emph{Planck} lensing map and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (emph{WISE}) galaxies. We fit $C_{L}^{phi G}$ to a power law of the form $p_{L}=a(L/L_{0})^{-b}$ with $a=2.15 times 10^{-8}$, $b=1.35$, $L_{0}=490$, and find $eta^{phi G}=0.94^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$, which is marginally lower, but in good agreement with $eta^{phi G}=1.00^{+0.02}_{-0.01}$, the best-fit amplitude for the cross-correlation of emph{Planck}-2015 CMB lensing and emph{WISE} galaxies over $sim67%$ of the sky. The lensing potential map presented here will be used for cross-correlation studies with the Dark Energy Survey (DES), whose footprint nearly completely covers the SPT $2500 {rm deg}^2$ field.
The predictions of the inflationary LCDM paradigm match todays high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy extremely well. The same data put tight limits on other sources of anisotropy. Cosmic strings are a particularly interesting alternate source to constrain. Strings are topological defects, remnants of inflationary-era physics that persist after the big bang. They are formed in a variety of models of inflation, including string theory models such as brane inflation. We assume a Nambu-Goto model for strings, approximated by a collection of unconnected segments with zero width, and show that measurements of temperature anisotropy by the South Pole Telescope break a parameter degeneracy in the WMAP data, permitting us to place a strong upper limit on the possible string contribution to the CMB anisotropy: the power sourced by zero-width strings must be <1.75% (95% CL) of the total or the string tension Gmu <1.7x10^{-7}. These limits imply that the best hope for detecting strings in the CMB will come from B-mode polarization measurements at arcminute scales rather than the degree scale measurements pursued for gravitational wave detection.
We use data from the first 100 square-degree field observed by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) in 2008 to measure the angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropies contributed by the background of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at millimeter wavelengths. From the auto and cross-correlation of 150 and 220 GHz SPT maps, we significantly detect both Poisson distributed and, for the first time at millimeter wavelengths, clustered components of power from a background of DSFGs. The spectral indices between 150 and 220 GHz of the Poisson and clustered components are found to be 3.86 +- 0.23 and 3.8 +- 1.3 respectively, implying a steep scaling of the dust emissivity index beta ~ 2. The Poisson and clustered power detected in SPT, BLAST (at 600, 860, and 1200 GHz), and Spitzer (1900 GHz) data can be understood in the context of a simple model in which all galaxies have the same graybody spectrum with dust emissivity index of beta = 2 and dust temperature T_d = 34 K. In this model, half of the 150 GHz background light comes from redshifts greater than 3.2. We also use the SPT data to place an upper limit on the amplitude of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich power spectrum at l = 3000 of 13 uK^2 at 95% confidence.
We compare cosmic microwave background lensing convergence maps derived from South Pole Telescope (SPT) data with galaxy survey data from the Blanco Cosmology Survey, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and a new large Spitzer/IRAC field designed to overlap with the SPT survey. Using optical and infrared catalogs covering between 17 and 68 square degrees of sky, we detect correlation between the SPT convergence maps and each of the galaxy density maps at >4 sigma, with zero cross-correlation robustly ruled out in all cases. The amplitude and shape of the cross-power spectra are in good agreement with theoretical expectations and the measured galaxy bias is consistent with previous work. The detections reported here utilize a small fraction of the full 2500 square degree SPT survey data and serve as both a proof of principle of the technique and an illustration of the potential of this emerging cosmological probe.
We present the software system used to control and operate the South Pole Telescope. The South Pole Telescope is a 10-meter millimeter-wavelength telescope designed to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at arcminute angular resolution. In the austral summer of 2011/12, the SPT was equipped with a new polarization-sensitive camera, which consists of 1536 transition-edge sensor bolometers. The bolometers are read out using 36 independent digital frequency multiplexing (dfmux) readout boards, each with its own embedded processors. These autonomous boards control and read out data from the focal plane with on-board software and firmware. An overall control software system running on a separate control computer controls the dfmux boards, the cryostat and all other aspects of telescope operation. This control software collects and monitors data in real-time, and stores the data to disk for transfer to the United States for analysis.