B-mode Polarization Research Articles

Current and future constraints on single-field α -attractor models

We study here the observational constraints on single-field inflationary models achievable with the next generation of CMB experiments. We particularly focus on a Stage-IV like experiment and forecasts its constraints on inflationary parameters in the context of $\alpha$-attractor inflation comprising a large class of single-field models. To tailor our forecasts we use as a fiducial model the results obtained with current CMB and LSS data, assuming the $\alpha$-model a priori. We found that current CMB data are able to place a tight bound on the ratio of the tensor-to-scalar ratio with the alpha parameter $r/\alpha = 3.87^{+0.78}_{-0.94}\cdot 10^{-3}$ and on the running of the scalar index $\alpha_S = -6.4^{+1.6}_{-1.3}\cdot 10^{-4}$ with a value of the scalar index consistent with current constraints. In the optimistic scenario of detection of primordial gravitational waves in the CMB B-mode polarization power spectra, we found that CMB-S4 will be able to achieve a $15\%$ bound on the value of the parameter $\alpha = 1.01^{+0.14}_{-0.18}$. This bound clearly show the ability of CMB-S4 to constrain not only the energy scale of inflation but also the shape of its potential. Enlarging the baseline model to also include the neutrino sector merely reduce the accuracy of $5\%$ leading to $\alpha = 1.07^{+0.18}_{-0.23}$ so that our main conclusions are still valid.

Unified approach to secondary effects on the CMB B-mode polarization

We develop a systematic and unified approach to estimate all possible secondary (i.e. non-primordial) nonlinear effects to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization, named curve-of-sight integration approach.In this approach, the Boltzmann equation for polarized photons is rewritten in a line-of-sight integral along an exact geodesic in the perturbed universe,rather than a geodesic in the background universe used in the linear-order CMB calculation.This approach resolves the difficulty to solve the Boltzmann hierarchy with the nonlinear gravitational effects in the photon free-streaming regime and thus unifies the standard remapping approach for CMB lensing into the direct approach solving the Boltzmann equation for the nonlinear collisional effects.In this paper, we derive formulae that: (i) include all the nonlinear effects; (ii) can treat extended sources such as the contributions after the reionization.It offers a solid framework to discuss possible systematics in the standard estimation of CMB lensing by the remapping approach.As an explicit demonstration,we estimate the secondary B-mode power spectrum induced by all foreground gravitational effects:lensing, redshift, time-delay, emission-angle, and polarization-rotation effects.We define these effects properly so that they do not have any overlap, also without overlooking any effect.Then, we show that these effects only give corrections of the order of 0.001­-0.01% to the standard lensing-induced B-mode power spectrum in the concordance Λ cold dark matter model.Our result confirms the reliability of using the remapping approach in upcoming CMB experiments aiming to detect the primordial gravitational waves with the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r ∼ 10-3.

The Origin of Parity Violation in Polarized Dust Emission and Implications for Cosmic Birefringence

Abstract Recent measurements of Galactic polarized dust emission have found a nonzero TB signal, a correlation between the total intensity and the B-mode polarization component. We present evidence that this parity-odd signal is driven by the relative geometry of the magnetic field and the filamentary interstellar medium in projection. Using neutral hydrogen morphology and Planck polarization data, we find that the angle between intensity structures and the plane-of-sky magnetic field orientation is predictive of the signs of Galactic TB and EB. Our results suggest that magnetically misaligned filamentary dust structures introduce nonzero TB and EB correlations in the dust polarization, and that the intrinsic dust EB can be predicted from measurements of dust TB and TE over the same sky mask. We predict correlations between TE, TB, EB, and EE/BB, and confirm our predictions using synthetic dust polarization maps from magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We introduce and measure a scale-dependent effective magnetic misalignment angle, ψ ℓ dust ∼ 5 ° for 100 ≲ ℓ ≲ 500, and predict a positive intrinsic dust EB with amplitude D ℓ EB ≲ 2.5 μ K CMB 2 for the same multipole range at 353 GHz over our sky mask. Both the sign and amplitude of the Galactic EB signal can change with the sky area considered. Our results imply that searches for parity violation in the cosmic microwave background must account for the nonzero Galactic EB and TB signals, necessitating revision of existing analyses of the evidence for cosmic birefringence.

Imprint of ultralight vector fields on gravitational wave propagation

We study the effects of ultralight vector field (ULVF) dark matter on gravitational-wave propagation. We find that the coherent oscillations of the vector field induce an anisotropic suppression of the gravitational-wave amplitude as compared to the $\Lambda$CDM prediction. The effect is enhanced for smaller vector field masses and peaks for modes around $k=H_0/\sqrt{a(H=m)}$. The suppression is negligible for astrophysically generated gravitational waves but could be sizeable for primordial gravity waves. We discuss the possibility of detecting such an effect on the tensor power spectrum with future CMB B-mode polarization detectors. We find that for the sensitivity of the upcoming LiteBIRD mission, the correction to the tensor power spectrum at decoupling time could be distinguishable from that of $\Lambda$CDM for ULVF masses $m\lesssim 10^{-26}$ eV and sufficiently large abundances.

A Bayesian ILC Method for CMB B-mode Posterior Estimation and Reconstruction of Primordial Gravity Wave Signal

Abstract The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation B-mode polarization signal contains the unique signature of primordial metric perturbations produced during the inflation. The separation of the weak CMB B-mode signal from strong foreground contamination in observed maps is a complex task, and proposed new-generation low-noise satellite missions compete with the weak signal level of this gravitational background. In this paper, for the first time, we employ a foreground model-independent internal linear combination (ILC) method to reconstruct the CMB B-mode signal using simulated observations over large angular scales of the sky of six frequency bands of the future-generation CMB mission Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO). We estimate the joint CMB B-mode posterior density following the interleaving Gibbs steps of the B-mode angular power spectrum and cleaned map samples using the ILC method. We extend and improve the earlier reported Bayesian ILC method to analyze weak CMB B-mode reconstruction by introducing noise-bias corrections at two stages during the ILC weight estimation. By performing 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the Bayesian ILC method, we find that our method can reconstruct the CMB signals and the joint posterior density accurately over large angular scales of the sky. We estimate the Blackwell–Rao statistics of the marginal density of the CMB B-mode angular power spectrum and use them to estimate the joint density of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and a lensing power spectrum amplitude A lens . Using 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the delensing approach, we find that our method can achieve an unbiased detection of the primordial gravitational-wave signal r with more than 8σ significance for levels of r ≥ 0.01 for input frequency maps with realistic lensing and foregrounds with constant spectral indices.

The Simons Observatory: gain, bandpass and polarization-angle calibration requirements for B-mode searches

We quantify the calibration requirements for systematic uncertainties for next-generation ground-based observatories targeting the large-angle B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, with a focus on the Simons Observatory (SO). We explore uncertainties on gain calibration, bandpass center frequencies, and polarization angles, including the frequency variation of the latter across the bandpass. We find that gain calibration and bandpass center frequencies must be known to percent levels or less to avoid biases on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r on the order of Δ r∼10-3, in line with previous findings. Polarization angles must be calibrated to the level of a few tenths of a degree, while their frequency variation between the edges of the band must be known to O(10) degrees. Given the tightness of these calibration requirements, we explore the level to which residual uncertainties on these systematics would affect the final constraints on r if included in the data model and marginalized over. We find that the additional parameter freedom does not degrade the final constraints on r significantly, broadening the error bar by O(10%) at most. We validate these results by reanalyzing the latest publicly available data from the collaboration within an extended parameter space covering both cosmological, foreground and systematic parameters. Finally, our results are discussed in light of the instrument design and calibration studies carried out within SO.

Quintessential α-attractor inflation: forecasts for Stage IV galaxy surveys

Single-field models of α-attractor quintessential inflation provide a unified picture of the two periods of early- and late-time cosmic acceleration, where both inflation and dark energy are described by a single scalar degree of freedom rolling down a runaway potential. These theoretically well-motivated models have distinct observational predictions that are in agreement with existing cosmological data. We show that the next generation of large-scale structure surveys, even when no other cosmological data sets are considered, will strongly constrain the parameter space of these models, and test them against the standard cosmological model and more conventional non-quintessential inflation. In particular, we expect \U0001d4aa(10-5-10-4) constraints on the present values of the dark energy equation of state and its time derivative, w0 and wa. We also forecast more than one order of magnitude tighter constraints on the spectral index of primordial curvature perturbations n_s compared to the expectations for the standard model. This demonstrates the powerful synergy between the upcoming large-scale structure probes of inflation and those aiming to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio r through the observation of B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background.

Integrated Electrical Properties of the Frequency Multiplexed Cryogenic Readout System for Polarbear/Simons Array

Polarbear/Simons Array is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment, with science goals including a deep search for CMB B-mode polarization created by inflationary gravitational waves, and characterization of the CMB B-mode signal from gravitational lensing. When completed, Simons Array will have over 20,000 superconducting transition-edge sensor bolometers, cooled to 300 mK with closed-cycle cryogenics. This significant increase in detectors and sensitivity is enabled by advancements in frequency multiplexed readout. The detectors are read out with DfMux digital frequency-domain multiplexing, with 40 channels read out by each SQUID array, with frequency channels between 1 and 5 MHz defined by an inductor and capacitor in series with each detector. After the system was completed and characterized for Polarbear-2a, modifications were made that further improved performance for Polarbear-2b. We present the characterization of the integrated cryogenic readout system for Polarbear-2a and Polarbear-2b, and comparison of properties including stray impedance and frequency scatter.

Peeling off foregrounds with the constrained moment ILC method to unveil primordial CMB B modes

ABSTRACT Galactic foregrounds are the main obstacle to observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization. In addition to obscuring the inflationary B-mode signal by several orders of magnitude, Galactic foregrounds have non-trivial spectral signatures that are partially unknown and distorted by averaging effects along the line of sight, within the pixel/beam window, and by various analysis choices (e.g. spherical harmonic transforms and filters). Statistical moment expansion methods provide a powerful tool for modelling the effective Galactic foreground emission resulting from these averaging effects in CMB observations, while blind component separation treatments can handle unknown foregrounds. In this work, we combine these two approaches to develop a new semiblind component separation method at the intersection of parametric and blind methods, called constrained moment ILC (cMILC). This method adds several constraints to the standard ILC method to deproject the main statistical moments of the Galactic foreground emission. Applications to maps are performed in needlet space and when compared to the NILC method, this helps in significantly reducing residual foreground contamination (bias, variance, and skewness) in the reconstructed CMB B-mode map, power spectrum, and tensor-to-scalar ratio. We consider sky simulations for experimental settings similar to those of LiteBIRD and PICO, illustrating which trade-offs between residual foreground biases and degradation of the constraint on r can be expected within the new cMILC framework. We also outline several directions that require more work in preparation for the coming analysis challenges.

Statistically-anisotropic tensor bispectrum from inflation

We develop a possibility of generating tensor non-Gaussianity in a kind of anisotropic inflation, where a (1) gauge field is kinetically coupled to a spectator scalar field.Owing to this coupling, the coherent mode of the electric field appears and softly breaks the isotropy of the Universe.We compute the bispectrum of linearly-polarized tensor perturbations sourced by the gauge field and find that it is strongly red-tiltedand has distinctive statistical anisotropies including higher-order multipole moments.Interestingly, the tensor bispectra with the specific combinations of linear polarization modes are dominant, and their amplitudes depend on the different sets of multipole moments.This new type of statistically-anisotropic tensor non-Gaussianity can be potentially testable with the upcoming cosmic microwave background B-mode polarization experiments.

Characterization of extragalactic point-sources on E- and B-mode maps of the CMB polarization

Although interesting in themselves, extragalactic sources emitting in the microwave range (mainly radio-loud active galactic nuclei and dusty galaxies) are also considered a contaminant from the point of view of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments. These sources appear as unresolved point-like objects in CMB measurements because of the limited resolution of CMB experiments. Amongst other issues, point-like sources are known to obstruct the reconstruction of the lensing potential, and can hinder the detection of the Primordial Gravitational Wave Background for low values of r. Therefore, extragalactic point-source detection and subtraction is a fundamental part of the component separation process necessary to achieve some of the science goals set for the next generation of CMB experiments. As a previous step to their removal, in this work we present a new filter based on steerable wavelets that allows the characterization of the emission of these extragalactic sources. Instead of the usual approach of working in polarization maps of the Stokes' Q and U parameters, the proposed filter operates on E- and B-mode polarization maps. In this way, it benefits from the lower intensity that, both, the CMB, and the galactic foreground emission, present in B-modes to improve its performance. To demonstrate its potential, we have applied the filter to simulations of the future PICO satellite, and we predict that, for the regions of fainter galactic foreground emission in the 30 GHz and 155 GHz bands of PICO, our filter will be able to characterize sources down to a minimum polarization intensity of, respectively, 125 pK and 14 pK. Adopting a Π=0.02 polarization degree, these values correspond to 169 mJy and 288 mJy intensities.

Impact of internal-delensing biases on searches for primordial \U0001d5a1-modes of CMB polarisation

Searches for the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in degree-scale CMB B-mode polarisation data must account for significant contamination from gravitational lensing. Fortunately, the lensing effects can be partially removed by combining high-resolution E-mode measurements with an estimate of the projected matter distribution. In the near future, experimental characteristics will be such that the latter can be reconstructed internally with high fidelity from the observed CMB, with the EB quadratic estimator providing a large fraction of the signal-to-noise. It is a well-known phenomenon in this context that any overlap in modes between the B-field to be delensed and the B-field from which the reconstruction is derived leads to a suppression of delensed power going beyond that which can be attributed to a mitigation of the lensing effects. More importantly, the variance associated with this spectrum is also reduced, posing the question of whether the additional power suppression could help better constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. In this paper, we show this is not the case, as suggested but not quantified in previous work. We develop an analytic model for the biased delensed B-mode angular power spectrum, which suggests a simple renormalisation prescription to avoid bias on the inferred tensor-to-scalar ratio. With this approach, we learn that the bias necessarily leads to a degradation of the signal-to-noise on a primordial component compared to “unbiased delensing”. Next, we assess the impact of removing from the lensing reconstruction any overlapping B-modes on our ability to constrain r, showing that it is in general advantageous to do this rather than modelling or renormalising the bias. Finally, we verify these results within a maximum-likelihood inference framework applied to simulations.

Probing frequency-dependent half-wave plate systematics for CMB experiments with full-sky beam convolution simulations

ABSTRACT We study systematic effects from half-wave plates (HWPs) for cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments using full-sky time-domain beam convolution simulations. Using an optical model for a fiducial spaceborne two-lens refractor telescope, we investigate how different HWP configurations optimized for dichroic detectors centred at 95 and 150 GHz impact the reconstruction of primordial B-mode polarization. We pay particular attention to possible biases arising from the interaction of frequency-dependent HWP non-idealities with polarized Galactic dust emission and the interaction between the HWP and the instrumental beam. To produce these simulations, we have extended the capabilities of the publicly available beamconv code. To our knowledge, we produce the first time-domain simulations that include both HWP non-idealities and realistic full-sky beam convolution. Our analysis shows how certain achromatic HWP configurations produce significant systematic polarization angle offsets that vary for sky components with different frequency dependence. Our analysis also demonstrates that once we account for interactions with HWPs, realistic beam models with non-negligible cross-polarization and sidelobes will cause significant B-mode residuals that will have to be extensively modelled in some cases.

Revised estimates of CMB B-mode polarization induced by patchy reionization

The search for primordial gravitational waves through the B-mode polarization pattern in the CMB is one of the major goals of current and future CMB experiments. Besides foregrounds, a potential hurdle in this search is the anisotropic secondary B-mode polarization generated by the scattering of CMB photons off free electrons produced during patchy cosmological reionization. Robust predictions of these secondary anisotropies are challenging because of uncertainties in the reionization history. In this paper we revise estimates of the reionization-induced B-mode signal by incorporating recent advances in the understanding of reionization through observations of the Lyman-α forest. To derive these B-mode estimates, we use high-dynamic-range radiative transfer simulations of reionization that are calibrated to the Lyα data. These simulations are also consistent with a variety of other high-redshift observations. We find that around multipoles ℓ≈ 100, reionization induces B-mode power with ℓ(ℓ+1)CℓBB/2π≈ 4× 10−6 μK2. This secondary signal is thus at the level of the primordial signal with the tensor-to-scalar ratio r<10−4, and can increase by a factor of ∼ 50 if reionization is sourced by highly clustered sources residing in haloes with mass of ∼ 1011 M⊙. Our findings suggest that the contribution of patchy reionization to the search for primordial gravitational waves is unlikely to be a concern for currently planned CMB experiments.

Sampling-based inference of the primordial CMB and gravitational lensing

In this manuscript, the authors propose, test and validate a new inference method that overcomes the limitations of existing algorithms used to deal with the contamination of the B-mode polarization by gravitational lensing. This new algorithm can perform joint inferences of the different cosmological parameters controlling primordial CMB and lensing. It leads to a rigorous check of several important approximations underlying the CMB-S4 r-mode forecasting, sharpening the search for primordial gravitational wave signatures in the CMB.

Spin characterization of systematics in CMB surveys – a comprehensive formalism

ABSTRACT The CMB B-mode polarization signal – both the primordial gravitational wave signature and the signal sourced by lensing – is subject to many contaminants from systematic effects. Of particular concern are systematics that result in mixing of signals of different ‘spin’, particularly leakage from the much larger spin-0 intensity signal to the spin-2 polarization signal. We present a general formalism, which can be applied to arbitrary focal plane setups, that characterizes signals in terms of their spin. We provide general expressions to describe how spin-coupled signals observed by the detectors manifest at map-level, in the harmonic domain, and in the power spectra, focusing on the polarization spectra – the signals of interest for upcoming CMB surveys. We demonstrate the presence of a previously unidentified cross-term between the systematic and the intrinsic sky signal in the power spectrum, which in some cases can be the dominant source of contamination. The formalism is not restricted to intensity to polarization leakage but provides a complete elucidation of all leakage including polarization mixing, and applies to both full and partial (masked) sky surveys, thus covering space-based, balloon-borne, and ground-based experiments. Using a pair-differenced setup, we demonstrate the formalism by using it to completely characterize the effects of differential gain and pointing systematics, incorporating both intensity leakage and polarization mixing. We validate our results with full time ordered data simulations. Finally, we show in an Appendix that an extension of simple binning map-making to include additional spin information is capable of removing spin-coupled systematics during the map-making process.

Inevitable imprints of patchy reionization on the cosmic microwave background anisotropy

ABSTRACT Reionization of the cosmic neutral hydrogen by the first stars in the Universe is an inhomogeneous process, which produces spatial fluctuations in free electron density. These fluctuations lead to observable signatures in cosmological probes like the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We explore the effect of the electron density fluctuations on CMB using photon-conserving seminumerical simulations of reionization named SCRIPT. We show that the amplitude of the kinematic Sunyaev–Zeldovich (kSZ) and the B-mode polarization signal depends on the patchiness in the spatial distribution of electrons along with the dependence on mid-point and extent of the reionization history. Motivated by this finding, we provide new scaling relations for the amplitude of kSZ and the B-mode polarization signal which can capture the effects arising from the mean optical depth, width of reionization, and spatial fluctuations in the electron density arising from patchy reionization. We show that the amplitude of the kSZ and the B-mode polarization signal exhibits different dependency on the width of reionization and the patchiness of reionization, and hence a joint study of these CMB probes will be able to break the degeneracy. By combining external data sets from 21-cm measurements, the degeneracy can be further lifted by directly exploring the sizes of the ionized regions.

Dust polarization modelling at large scale over the northern Galactic cap using EBHIS and Planck data

The primary source of systematic uncertainty in the quest for the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) introduced by primordial gravitational waves is polarized thermal emission from Galactic dust. Therefore, accurate characterization and separation of the polarized thermal dust emission is an essential step in distinguishing such a faint CMB B-mode signal. We provide a modelling framework to simulate polarized thermal dust emission based on the model described in Ghosh et al. (2017, A&amp;A, 601, A71), making use of both the Planck dust and Effelsberg-Bonn HI surveys over the northern Galactic cap. Our seven-parameter dust model, incorporating both HI gas in three different column density templates as a proxy for spatially variable dust intensity and a phenomenological model of Galactic magnetic field, is able to reproduce both one- and two-point statistics of the observed dust polarization maps seen by Planck at 353 GHz over a selected low-column density region in the northern Galactic cap. This work has important applications in assessing the accuracy of component separation methods and in quantifying the confidence level of separating polarized Galactic emission and the CMB B-mode signal, as is needed for ongoing and future CMB missions.

Alleviating the Tension in the Cosmic Microwave Background Using Planck-Scale Physics.

Certain anomalies in the CMB bring out a tension between the six-parameter flat ΛCDM model and the CMB data. We revisit the PLANCK analysis with loop quantum cosmology (LQC) predictions and show that LQC alleviates both the large-scale power anomaly and the tension in the lensing amplitude. These differences arise because, in LQC, the primordial power spectrum is scale dependent for small k, with a specific power suppression. We conclude with a prediction of larger optical depth and power suppression in the B-mode polarization power spectrum on large scales.

Polarization of the Cosmic Infrared Background Fluctuations

Abstract The cosmic infrared background (CIB) is slightly polarized. Polarization directions of individual galaxies could be aligned with tidal fields around galaxies, resulting in nonzero CIB polarization. We use a linear intrinsic alignment model to theoretically predict angular correlations of the CIB polarization fluctuations and find that electriclike and curl-like (B-mode) polarization modes are equally generated with power four orders of magnitude less than their intensity. The CIB B-mode signal is negligible and not a concerning foreground for the inflationary B-mode searches at nominal frequencies for cosmic microwave background measurements, but could be detected at submillimeter wavelengths by future space missions.