No Arabic abstract
We present measurements of the $E$-mode polarization angular auto-power spectrum ($EE$) and temperature-$E$-mode cross-power spectrum ($TE$) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data from three seasons of SPTpol observations. We report the power spectra over the spherical harmonic multipole range $50 < ell leq 8000$, and detect nine acoustic peaks in the $EE$ spectrum with high signal-to-noise ratio. These measurements are the most sensitive to date of the $EE$ and $TE$ power spectra at $ell > 1050$ and $ell > 1475$, respectively. The observations cover 500 deg$^2$, a fivefold increase in area compared to previous SPTpol analyses, which increases our sensitivity to the photon diffusion damping tail of the CMB power spectra enabling tighter constraints on LCDM model extensions. After masking all sources with unpolarized flux $>50$ mJy we place a 95% confidence upper limit on residual polarized point-source power of $D_ell = ell(ell+1)C_ell/2pi <0.107,mu{rm K}^2$ at $ell=3000$, suggesting that the $EE$ damping tail dominates foregrounds to at least $ell = 4050$ with modest source masking. We find that the SPTpol dataset is in mild tension with the $Lambda CDM$ model ($2.1,sigma$), and different data splits prefer parameter values that differ at the $sim 1,sigma$ level. When fitting SPTpol data at $ell < 1000$ we find cosmological parameter constraints consistent with those for $Planck$ temperature. Including SPTpol data at $ell > 1000$ results in a preference for a higher value of the expansion rate ($H_0 = 71.3 pm 2.1,mbox{km},s^{-1}mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$ ) and a lower value for present-day density fluctuations ($sigma_8 = 0.77 pm 0.02$).
We report a B-mode power spectrum measurement from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropy observations made using the SPTpol instrument on the South Pole Telescope. This work uses 500 deg$^2$ of SPTpol data, a five-fold increase over the last SPTpol B-mode release. As a result, the bandpower uncertainties have been reduced by more than a factor of two, and the measurement extends to lower multipoles: $52 < ell < 2301$. Data from both 95 and 150 GHz are used, allowing for three cross-spectra: 95 GHz x 95 GHz, 95 GHz x 150 GHz, and 150 GHz x 150 GHz. B-mode power is detected at very high significance; we find $P(BB < 0) = 5.8 times 10^{-71}$, corresponding to a $18.1 sigma$ detection of power. An upper limit is set on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r < 0.44$ at 95% confidence (the expected $1 sigma$ constraint on $r$ given the measurement uncertainties is 0.22). We find the measured B-mode power is consistent with the Planck best-fit $Lambda$CDM model predictions. Scaling the predicted lensing B-mode power in this model by a factor Alens, the data prefer Alens = $1.17 pm 0.13$. These data are currently the most precise measurements of B-mode power at $ell > 320$.
We present measurements of $E$-mode polarization and temperature-$E$-mode correlation in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using data from the first season of observations with SPTpol, the polarization-sensitive receiver currently installed on the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The observations used in this work cover 100~sqdeg of sky with arcminute resolution at $150,$GHz. We report the $E$-mode angular auto-power spectrum ($EE$) and the temperature-$E$-mode angular cross-power spectrum ($TE$) over the multipole range $500 < ell leq5000$. These power spectra improve on previous measurements in the high-$ell$ (small-scale) regime. We fit the combination of the SPTpol power spectra, data from planck, and previous SPT measurements with a six-parameter LCDM cosmological model. We find that the best-fit parameters are consistent with previous results. The improvement in high-$ell$ sensitivity over previous measurements leads to a significant improvement in the limit on polarized point-source power: after masking sources brighter than 50,mJy in unpolarized flux at 150,GHz, we find a 95% confidence upper limit on unclustered point-source power in the $EE$ spectrum of $D_ell = ell (ell+1) C_ell / 2 pi < 0.40 mu{mbox{K}}^2$ at $ell=3000$, indicating that future $EE$ measurements will not be limited by power from unclustered point sources in the multipole range $ell < 3600$, and possibly much higher in $ell.$
We present a measurement of the $B$-mode polarization power spectrum (the $BB$ spectrum) from 100 $mathrm{deg}^2$ of sky observed with SPTpol, a polarization-sensitive receiver currently installed on the South Pole Telescope. The observations used in this work were taken during 2012 and early 2013 and include data in spectral bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. We report the $BB$ spectrum in five bins in multipole space, spanning the range $300 le ell le 2300$, and for three spectral combinations: 95 GHz $times$ 95 GHz, 95 GHz $times$ 150 GHz, and 150 GHz $times$ 150 GHz. We subtract small ($< 0.5 sigma$ in units of statistical uncertainty) biases from these spectra and account for the uncertainty in those biases. The resulting power spectra are inconsistent with zero power but consistent with predictions for the $BB$ spectrum arising from the gravitational lensing of $E$-mode polarization. If we assume no other source of $BB$ power besides lensed $B$ modes, we determine a preference for lensed $B$ modes of $4.9 sigma$. After marginalizing over tensor power and foregrounds, namely polarized emission from galactic dust and extragalactic sources, this significance is $4.3 sigma$. Fitting for a single parameter, $A_mathrm{lens}$, that multiplies the predicted lensed $B$-mode spectrum, and marginalizing over tensor power and foregrounds, we find $A_mathrm{lens} = 1.08 pm 0.26$, indicating that our measured spectra are consistent with the signal expected from gravitational lensing. The data presented here provide the best measurement to date of the $B$-mode power spectrum on these angular scales.
We present measurements of the $E$-mode ($EE$) polarization power spectrum and temperature-$E$-mode ($TE$) cross-power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background using data collected by SPT-3G, the latest instrument installed on the South Pole Telescope. This analysis uses observations of a 1500 deg$^2$ region at 95, 150, and 220 GHz taken over a four month period in 2018. We report binned values of the $EE$ and $TE$ power spectra over the angular multipole range $300 le ell < 3000$, using the multifrequency data to construct six semi-independent estimates of each power spectrum and their minimum-variance combination. These measurements improve upon the previous results of SPTpol across the multipole ranges $300 le ell le 1400$ for $EE$ and $300 le ell le 1700$ for $TE$, resulting in constraints on cosmological parameters comparable to those from other current leading ground-based experiments. We find that the SPT-3G dataset is well-fit by a $Lambda$CDM cosmological model with parameter constraints consistent with those from Planck and SPTpol data. From SPT-3G data alone, we find $H_0 = 68.8 pm 1.5 mathrm{km,s^{-1},Mpc^{-1}}$ and $sigma_8 = 0.789 pm 0.016$, with a gravitational lensing amplitude consistent with the $Lambda$CDM prediction ($A_L = 0.98 pm 0.12$). We combine the SPT-3G and the Planck datasets and obtain joint constraints on the $Lambda$CDM model. The volume of the 68% confidence region in six-dimensional $Lambda$CDM parameter space is reduced by a factor of 1.5 compared to Planck-only constraints, with only slight shifts in central values. We note that the results presented here are obtained from data collected during just half of a typical observing season with only part of the focal plane operable, and that the active detector count has since nearly doubled for observations made with SPT-3G after 2018.
We report a measurement of the E-mode polarization power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data taken from July 2014 to December 2016 with the POLARBEAR experiment. We reach an effective polarization map noise level of $32,mumathrm{K}$-$mathrm{arcmin}$ across an observation area of 670 square degrees. We measure the EE power spectrum over the angular multipole range $500 leq ell <3000$, tracing the third to seventh acoustic peaks with high sensitivity. The statistical uncertainty on E-mode bandpowers is $sim 2.3 mu {rm K}^2$ at $ell sim 1000$ with a systematic uncertainty of 0.5$mu {rm K}^2$. The data are consistent with the standard $Lambda$CDM cosmological model with a probability-to-exceed of 0.38. We combine recent CMB E-mode measurements and make inferences about cosmological parameters in $Lambda$CDM as well as in extensions to $Lambda$CDM. Adding the ground-based CMB polarization measurements to the Planck dataset reduces the uncertainty on the Hubble constant by a factor of 1.2 to $H_0 = 67.20 pm 0.57 {rm km,s^{-1} ,Mpc^{-1}}$. When allowing the number of relativistic species ($N_{eff}$) to vary, we find $N_{eff} = 2.94 pm 0.16$, which is in good agreement with the standard value of 3.046. Instead allowing the primordial helium abundance ($Y_{He}$) to vary, the data favor $Y_{He} = 0.248 pm 0.012$. This is very close to the expectation of 0.2467 from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. When varying both $Y_{He}$ and $N_{eff}$, we find $N_{eff} = 2.70 pm 0.26$ and $Y_{He} = 0.262 pm 0.015$.