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Register a new userGalactic foreground contribution to the BEAST CMB Anisotropy Maps
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Carlos Alexandre Wuensche
Publication date
2004
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We report limits on the Galactic foreground emission contribution to the Background Emission Anisotropy Scanning Telescope (BEAST) Ka- and Q-band CMB anisotropy maps. We estimate the contribution from the cross-correlations between these maps and the foreground emission templates of an H${alpha}$ map, a de-striped version of the Haslam et al. 408 MHz map, and a combined 100 $mu$m IRAS/DIRBE map. Our analysis samples the BEAST $sim10^circ$ declination band into 24 one-hour (RA) wide sectors with $sim7900$ pixels each, where we calculate: (a) the linear correlation coefficient between the anisotropy maps and the templates; (b) the coupling constants between the specific intensity units of the templates and the antenna temperature at the BEAST frequencies and (c) the individual foreground contributions to the BEAST anisotropy maps. The peak sector contributions of the contaminants in the Ka-band are of 56.5% free-free with a coupling constant of $8.3pm0.4$ $mu$K/R, and 67.4% dust with $45.0pm2.0$ $mu$K/(MJy/sr). In the Q-band the corresponding values are of 64.4% free-free with $4.1pm0.2$ $mu$K/R and 67.5% dust with $24.0pm1.0$ $mu$K/(MJy/sr). Using a lower limit of 10% in the relative uncertainty of the coupling constants, we can constrain the sector contributions of each contaminant in both maps to $< 20$% in 21 (free-free), 19 (dust) and 22 (synchrotron) sectors. At this level, all these sectors are found outside of the $mid$b$mid = 14.6^circ$ region. By performing the same correlation analysis as a function of Galactic scale height, we conclude that the region within $b=pm17.5^{circ}$ should be removed from the BEAST maps for CMB studies in order to keep individual Galactic contributions below $sim 1$% of the maps rms.
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We compute the cross correlation of the intensity and polarisation from the 5-year WMAP data in different sky-regions with respect to template maps for synchrotron, dust, and free-free emission. We derive the frequency dependence and polarisation fraction for all three components in 48 different sky regions of HEALPix (Nside=2) pixelisation. The anomalous emission associated with dust is clearly detected in intensity over the entire sky at the K (23 GHz) and Ka (33 GHz) WMAP bands, and is found to be the dominant foreground at low Galactic latitude, between b=-40 and b=+10. The synchrotron spectral index obtained from the K and Ka WMAP bands from an all-sky analysis is -3.32pm 0.12 for intensity and -3.01pm0.03 for the polarised intensity. The polarisation fraction of the synchrotron is constant in frequency and increases with latitude from ~5% near the Galactic plane up to ~40% in some regions at high latitude; the average value for |b|<20 is 8.6pm1.7 (stat) pm0.5 (sys) % while for |b|>20 it is 19.3pm0.8 (stat) pm 0.5 (sys) %. Anomalous dust and free-free emission appear to be relatively unpolarised...[Abridged]...the average polarisation fraction of dust-correlated emission at K-band is 3.2pm0.9 (stat) pm 1.5 (sys) %, or less than 5% at 95% confidence. When comparing real data with simulations, 8 regions show a detected polarisation above the 99th percentile of the distribution from simulations with no input foreground polarisation, 6 of which are detected at above 2sigma and display polarisation fractions between 2.6% and 7.2%, except for one anomalous region, which has 32pm12%. The dust polarisation values are consistent with the expectation from spinning-dust emission, but polarised dust emission from magnetic-dipole radiation cannot be ruled out. Free-free emission was found to be unpolarised with an upper limit of 3.4% at 95% confidence.
The Background Emission Anisotropy Scanning Telescope (BEAST) is a 2.2m off-axis telescope with an 8 element mixed Q (38-45GHz) and Ka (26-36GHz) band focal plane, designed for balloon borne and ground based studies of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Here we present the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) angular power spectrum calculated from 682 hours of data observed with the BEAST instrument. We use a binned pseudo-Cl estimator (the MASTER method). We find results that are consistent with other determinations of the CMB anisotropy for angular wavenumber l between 100 and 600. We also perform cosmological parameter estimation. The BEAST data alone produces a good constraint on Omega_k = 1-Omega_tot=-0.074 +/- 0.070, consistent with a flat Universe. A joint parameter estimation analysis with a number of previous CMB experiments produces results consistent with previous determinations.
The polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)is a powerful observational tool at hand for modern cosmology. It allows to break the degeneracy of fundamental cosmological parameters one cannot obtain using only anisotropy data and provides new insight into conditions existing in the very early Universe. Many experiments are now in progress whose aim is detecting anisotropy and polarization of the CMB. Measurements of the CMB polarization are however hampered by the presence of polarized foregrounds, above all the synchrotron emission of our Galaxy, whose importance increases as frequency decreases and dominates the polarized diffuse radiation at frequencies below $simeq 50$ GHz. In the past the separation of CMB and synchrotron was made combining observations of the same area of sky made at different frequencies. In this paper we show that the statistical properties of the polarized components of the synchrotron and dust foregrounds are different from the statistical properties of the polarized component of the CMB, therefore one can build a statistical estimator which allows to extract the polarized component of the CMB from single frequency data also when the polarized CMB signal is just a fraction of the total polarized signal. This estimator improves the signal/noise ratio for the polarized component of the CMB and reduces from about 50 GHz to about 20 GHz the frequency above which the polarized component of the CMB can be extracted from single frequency maps of the diffuse radiation.
We present results obtained with the PRONAOS balloon-borne experiment on interstellar dust. In particular, the submillimeter / millimeter spectral index is found to vary between roughly 1 and 2.5 on small scales (3.5 resolution). This could have implications for component separation in Cosmic Microwave Background maps.
The overwhelming foreground contamination hinders the accurate detection of the 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Among various foreground components, the Galactic free-free emission is less studied, so that its impact on the EoR observations remains unclear. In this work, we employ the observed $rm Halpha$ intensity map with the correction of dust absorption and scattering, the Simfast21 software, and the latest SKA1-Low layout configuration to simulate the SKA observed images of Galactic free-free emission and the EoR signal. By calculating the one-dimensional power spectra from the simulated image cubes, we find that the Galactic free-free emission is about $10^{3.5}$-$10^{2.0}$, $10^{3.0}$-$10^{1.3}$, and $10^{2.5}$-$10^{1.0}$ times more luminous than the EoR signal on scales of $0.1~rm Mpc^{-1} < k < 2~rm Mpc^{-1}$ in the $116$-$124$, $146$-$154$, and $186$-$194$ ${rm MHz}$ frequency bands. We further analyse the two-dimensional power spectra inside the properly defined EoR window and find that the leaked Galactic free-free emission can still cause non-negligible contamination, as the ratios of its power (amplitude squared) to the EoR signal power can reach about $200%$, $60%$, and $15%$ on scales of $1.2~rm Mpc^{-1}$ in three frequency bands, respectively. Therefore, we conclude that the Galactic free-free emission, as a severe contaminating foreground component, needs to be carefully treated in the forthcoming deep EoR observations.
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