Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor Research Articles

CLASS Angular Power Spectra and Map-component Analysis for 40 GHz Observations through 2022

Measurement of the largest angular scale (ℓ < 30) features of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is a powerful way to constrain the optical depth to reionization and search for the signature of inflation through the detection of primordial B-modes. We present an analysis of maps covering 73.6% of the sky made from the 40 GHz channel of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) from 2016 August to 2022 May. Taking advantage of the measurement stability enabled by front-end polarization modulation and excellent conditions from the Atacama Desert, we show this channel achieves higher sensitivity than the analogous frequencies from satellite measurements in the range 10 < ℓ < 100. Simulations show the CLASS linear (circular) polarization maps have a white noise level of 125(130)μKarcmin . We measure the Galaxy-masked EE and BB spectra of diffuse synchrotron radiation and compare to space-based measurements at similar frequencies. In combination with external data, we expand measurements of the spatial variations of the synchrotron spectral energy density (SED) to include new sky regions and measure the diffuse SED in the harmonic domain. We place a new upper limit on a background of circular polarization in the range 5 < ℓ < 125 with the first bin showing D ℓ < 0.023 μKCMB2 at 95% confidence. These results establish a new standard for recovery of the largest-scale CMB polarization from the ground and signal exciting possibilities when the higher sensitivity and higher-frequency CLASS channels are included in the analysis.

CLASS Observations of Atmospheric Cloud Polarization at millimeter Wavelengths

The dynamic atmosphere imposes challenges to ground-based cosmic microwave background observation, especially for measurements on large angular scales. The hydrometeors in the atmosphere, mostly in the form of clouds, scatter the ambient thermal radiation and are known to be the main linearly polarized source in the atmosphere. This scattering-induced polarization is significantly enhanced for ice clouds due to the alignment of ice crystals under gravity, which are also the most common clouds seen at the millimeter-astronomy sites at high altitudes. This work presents a multifrequency study of cloud polarization observed by the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor experiment on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, from 2016–2022, at the frequency bands centered around 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz. Using a machine-learning-assisted cloud classifier, we made connections between the transient polarized emission found in all four frequencies with the clouds imaged by monitoring cameras at the observing site. The polarization angles of the cloud events are found to be mostly 90° from the local meridian, which is consistent with the presence of horizontally aligned ice crystals. The 90 and 150 GHz polarization data are consistent with a power law with a spectral index of 3.90 ± 0.06, while an excess/deficit of polarization amplitude is found at 40/220 GHz compared with a Rayleigh scattering spectrum. These results are consistent with Rayleigh-scattering-dominated cloud polarization, with possible effects from supercooled water absorption and/or Mie scattering from a population of large cloud particles that contribute to the 220 GHz polarization.

CLASS Data Pipeline and Maps for 40 GHz Observations through 2022

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a telescope array that observes the cosmic microwave background over 75% of the sky from the Atacama Desert, Chile, at frequency bands centered near 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz. This paper describes the CLASS data pipeline and maps for 40 GHz observations conducted from 2016 August to 2022 May. We demonstrate how well the CLASS survey strategy, with rapid (∼10 Hz) front-end modulation, recovers the large-scale Galactic polarization signal from the ground: the mapping transfer function recovers ∼67% (85%) of EE and BB (VV) power at ℓ = 20 and ∼35% (47%) at ℓ = 10. We present linear and circular polarization maps over 75% of the sky. Simulations based on the data imply the maps have a white noise level of and correlated noise component rising at low-ℓ as ℓ −2.4. The transfer-function-corrected low-ℓ component is comparable to the white noise at the angular knee frequencies of ℓ ≈ 18 (linear polarization) and ℓ ≈ 12 (circular polarization). Finally, we present simulations of the level at which expected sources of systematic error bias the measurements, finding subpercent bias for the Λ cold dark matter EE power spectra. Bias from E-to-B leakage due to the data reduction pipeline and polarization angle uncertainty approaches the expected level for an r = 0.01 BB power spectrum. Improvements to the instrument calibration and the data pipeline will decrease this bias.

On-Sky Performance of New 90 GHz Detectors for the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a polarization-sensitive telescope array located at an altitude of 5,200 m in the Chilean Atacama Desert and designed to measure the polarized Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over large angular scales. The CLASS array is currently observing with three telescopes covering four frequency bands: one at 40 GHz (Q); one at 90 GHz (W1); and one dichroic system at 150/220 GHz (HF). During the austral winter of 2022, we upgraded the first 90 GHz telescope (W1) by replacing four of the seven focal plane modules. These new modules contain detector wafers with an updated design, aimed at improving the optical efficiency and detector stability. We present a description of the design changes and measurements of on-sky optical efficiencies derived from observations of Jupiter.

Microwave Observations of Venus with CLASS

We report on the disk-averaged absolute brightness temperatures of Venus measured at four microwave frequency bands with the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor. We measure temperatures of 432.3 ± 2.8, 355.6 ± 1.3, 317.9 ± 1.7, and 294.7 ± 1.9 K for frequency bands centered at 38.8, 93.7, 147.9, and 217.5 GHz, respectively. We do not observe any dependence of the measured brightness temperatures on solar illumination for all four frequency bands. A joint analysis of our measurements with lower-frequency Very Large Array observations suggests relatively warmer (∼7 K higher) mean atmospheric temperatures and lower abundances of microwave continuum absorbers than those inferred from prior radio occultation measurements.

Testing Cosmic Microwave Background Anomalies in E-mode Polarization with Current and Future Data

In this paper, we explore the power of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization (E-mode) data to corroborate four potential anomalies in CMB temperature data: the lack of large angular-scale correlations, the alignment of the quadrupole and octupole (Q–O), the point-parity asymmetry, and the hemispherical power asymmetry. We use CMB simulations with noise representative of three experiments—the Planck satellite, the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), and the LiteBIRD satellite—to test how current and future data constrain the anomalies. We find the correlation coefficients ρ between temperature and E-mode estimators to be less than 0.1, except for the point-parity asymmetry (ρ = 0.17 for cosmic-variance-limited simulations), confirming that E-modes provide a check on the anomalies that is largely independent of temperature data. Compared to Planck component-separated CMB data (smica), the putative LiteBIRD survey would reduce errors on E-mode anomaly estimators by factors of ∼3 for hemispherical power asymmetry and point-parity asymmetry, and by ∼26 for lack of large-scale correlation. The improvement in Q–O alignment is not obvious due to large cosmic variance, but we found the ability to pin down the estimator value will be improved by a factor ≳100. Improvements with CLASS are intermediate to these.

Calibration of Transition-edge Sensor (TES) Bolometer Arrays with Application to CLASS

The current and future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments fielding kilopixel arrays of transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers require accurate and robust gain calibration methods. We simplify and refactor the standard TES model to directly relate the detector responsivity calibration and optical time constant to the measured TES current I and the applied bias current I b. The calibration method developed for the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) TES bolometer arrays relies on current versus voltage (I–V) measurements acquired daily prior to CMB observations. By binning Q-band (40 GHz) I–V measurements by optical loading, we find that the gain calibration median standard error within a bin is 0.3%. We test the accuracy of this I–V bin detector calibration method by using the Moon as a photometric standard. The ratio of measured Moon amplitudes between the detector pairs sharing the same feedhorn indicates a TES calibration error of 0.5%. We also find that, for the CLASS Q-band TES array, calibrating the response of individual detectors based solely on the applied TES bias current accurately corrects TES gain variations across time but introduces a bias in the TES calibration from data counts to power units. Since the TES current bias value is set and recorded before every observation, this calibration method can always be applied to the raw TES data and is not subject to I–V data quality or processing errors.

Four-year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: On-sky Receiver Performance at 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz Frequency Bands

Abstract The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) observes the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) over the angular scales of 1° ≲ θ ≤ 90° with the aim of characterizing primordial gravitational waves and cosmic reionization. We report on the on-sky performance of the CLASS Q-band (40 GHz), W-band (90 GHz), and dichroic G-band (150/220 GHz) receivers that have been operational at the CLASS site in the Atacama desert since 2016 June, 2018 May, and 2019 September, respectively. We show that the noise-equivalent power measured by the detectors matches the expected noise model based on on-sky optical loading and lab-measured detector parameters. Using Moon, Venus, and Jupiter observations, we obtain power to antenna temperature calibrations and optical efficiencies for the telescopes. From the CMB survey data, we compute instantaneous array noise-equivalent-temperature sensitivities of 22, 19, 23, and 71 μ K cmb s for the 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz frequency bands, respectively. These noise temperatures refer to white noise amplitudes, which contribute to sky maps at all angular scales. Future papers will assess additional noise sources impacting larger angular scales.

SiAl composite feedhorn arrays for astrophysical applications: Cryogenic material properties.

A study investigating the physical properties and use of the SiAl composite Controlled Expansion 7 (CE7) for the packaging of silicon bolometric detectors for millimeter-wave astrophysical applications at cryogenic temperatures is presented. The existing interfaces to such detectors are typically made of either ductile metals or micro-machined silicon. As a composite of Si and Al, we find that CE7 exhibits properties of both in ways that may be advantageous for this application. This exploration of the physical properties of CE7 reveals: (a) superconductivity below a critical transition temperature, Tc ∼ 1.2K; (b) a thermal contraction profile much closer to Si than metal substrates; (c) the relatively low thermal conductivity anticipated for a superconductor, which can be improved by Au-plating; and (d) the feasibility of machining mechanical features with tolerances of ∼25 µm. We further discuss the use of CE7 in the cosmology large angular scale surveyor telescope array, which deployed CE7 in several of its detector focal planes.

Two Year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: Long Timescale Stability Achieved with a Front-end Variable-delay Polarization Modulator at 40 GHz

Abstract The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four-telescope array observing the largest angular scales (2≲ ℓ ≲ 200) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. These scales encode information about reionization and inflation during the early universe. The instrument stability necessary to observe these angular scales from the ground is achieved through the use of a variable-delay polarization modulator as the first optical element in each of the CLASS telescopes. Here, we develop a demodulation scheme used to extract the polarization timestreams from the CLASS data and apply this method to selected data from the first 2 yr of observations by the 40 GHz CLASS telescope. These timestreams are used to measure the 1/f noise and temperature-to-polarization (T → P) leakage present in the CLASS data. We find a median knee frequency for the pair-differenced demodulated linear polarization of 15.12 mHz and a T → P leakage of &lt;3.8 × 10−4 (95% confidence) across the focal plane. We examine the sources of 1/f noise present in the data and find the component of 1/f due to atmospheric precipitable water vapor (PWV) has an amplitude of 203 ± 12 μ K RJ s for 1 mm of PWV when evaluated at 10 mHz; accounting for ∼17% of the 1/f noise in the central pixels of the focal plane. The low levels of T → P leakage and 1/f noise achieved through the use of a front-end polarization modulator are requirements for observing of the largest angular scales of the CMB polarization by the CLASS telescopes.

Venus Observations at 40 and 90 GHz with CLASS

Abstract Using the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor, we measure the disk-averaged absolute Venus brightness temperature to be 432.3 ± 2.8 K and 355.6 ± 1.3 K in the Q and W frequency bands centered at 38.8 and 93.7 GHz, respectively. At both frequency bands, these are the most precise measurements to date. Furthermore, we observe no phase dependence of the measured temperature in either band. Our measurements are consistent with a CO2-dominant atmospheric model that includes trace amounts of additional absorbers like SO2 and H2SO4.

Two-year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: 40 GHz Telescope Pointing, Beam Profile, Window Function, and Polarization Performance

Abstract The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a telescope array that observes the cosmic microwave background (CMB) over 75% of the sky from the Atacama Desert, Chile, at frequency bands centered near 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz. CLASS measures the large angular scale (1° ≲ θ 90°) CMB polarization to constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio at the r ∼ 0.01 level and the optical depth to last scattering to the sample variance limit. This paper presents the optical characterization of the 40 GHz telescope during its first observation era, from 2016 September to 2018 February. High signal-to-noise observations of the Moon establish the pointing and beam calibration. The telescope boresight pointing variation is &lt;0.°023 (&lt;1.6% of the beam’s full width at half maximum (FWHM)). We estimate beam parameters per detector and in aggregate, as in the CMB survey maps. The aggregate beam has an FWHM of 1.°579 ± 0.°001 and a solid angle of 838 ± 6 μsr, consistent with physical optics simulations. The corresponding beam window function has a sub-percent error per multipole at ℓ &lt; 200. An extended 90° beam map reveals no significant far sidelobes. The observed Moon polarization shows that the instrument polarization angles are consistent with the optical model and that the temperature-to-polarization leakage fraction is &lt;10−4 (95% C.L.). We find that the Moon-based results are consistent with measurements of M42, RCW 38, and Tau A from CLASS’s CMB survey data. In particular, Tau A measurements establish degree-level precision for instrument polarization angles.

Pixel space convolution for cosmic microwave background experiments

Cosmic microwave background experiments have experienced an exponential increase in complexity, data size and sensitivity. One of the goals of current and future experiments is to characterize the B-mode power spectrum, which would be considered a strong evidence supporting inflation. The signal associated with inflationary B-modes is very weak, and so a successful detection requires exquisite control over systematic effects, several of which might arise due to the interaction between the electromagnetic properties of the telescope beam, the scanning strategy and the sky model. In this work, we present the Pixel Space COnvolver (PISCO), a new software tool capable of producing mock data streams for a general CMB experiment. PISCO uses a fully polarized representation of the electromagnetic properties of the telescope. PISCO also exploits the massively parallel architecture of Graphic Processing Units to speed-up the main calculation. This work shows the results of applying PISCO in several scenarios, included a realistic simulation of an ongoing experiment, the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor.

Two-year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: A First Detection of Atmospheric Circular Polarization at Q band

Abstract The Earth’s magnetic field induces Zeeman splitting of the magnetic dipole transitions of molecular oxygen in the atmosphere, which produces polarized emission in the millimeter-wave regime. This polarized emission is primarily circularly polarized and manifests as a foreground with a dipole-shaped sky pattern for polarization-sensitive ground-based cosmic microwave background experiments, such as the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), which is capable of measuring large angular scale circular polarization. Using atmospheric emission theory and radiative transfer formalisms, we model the expected amplitude and spatial distribution of this signal and evaluate the model for the CLASS observing site in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Then, using two years of observations at 32.°3 to 43.7 GHz from the CLASS Q-band telescope, we present a detection of this signal and compare the observed signal to that predicted by the model. We recover an angle between magnetic north and true north of −5.°5 ± 0.°6, which is consistent with the expectation of −5.°9 for the CLASS observing site. When comparing dipole sky patterns fit to both simulated and data-derived sky maps, the dipole directions match to within a degree, and the measured amplitudes match to within ∼20%.

Two-year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: A Measurement of Circular Polarization at 40 GHz

Abstract We report measurements of circular polarization from the first two years of observation with the 40 GHz polarimeter of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS). CLASS is conducting a multi-frequency survey covering 75% of the sky from the Atacama Desert designed to measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) linear E and B polarization on angular scales 1° ≲ θ ≤ 90°, corresponding to a multipole range of 2 ≤ ℓ ≲ 200. The modulation technology enabling measurements of linear polarization at the largest angular scales from the ground, the Variable-delay Polarization Modulator, is uniquely designed to provide explicit sensitivity to circular polarization (Stokes V). We present a first detection of circularly polarized atmospheric emission at 40 GHz that is well described by a dipole with an amplitude of when observed at an elevation of 45°, and discuss its potential impact on the recovery of linear polarization by CLASS. Filtering the atmospheric component, CLASS places a 95% confidence upper limit of to on for , representing an improvement by two orders of magnitude over previous CMB limits.

The CLASS 150/220 GHz Polarimeter Array: Design, Assembly, and Characterization

We report on the development of a polarization-sensitive dichroic (150/220 GHz) detector array for the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) delivered to the telescope site in June 2019. In concert with existing 40 and 90 GHz telescopes, the 150/220 GHz telescope will make observations of the cosmic microwave background over large angular scales aimed at measuring the primordial B-mode signal, the optical depth to reionization, and other fundamental physics and cosmology. The 150/220 GHz focal plane array consists of three detector modules with 1020 transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers in total. Each dual-polarization pixel on the focal plane contains four bolometers to measure the two linear polarization states at 150 and 220 GHz. Light is coupled through a planar orthomode transducer (OMT) fed by a smooth-walled feedhorn array made from an aluminum-silicon alloy (CE7). In this work, we discuss the design, assembly, and in-lab characterization of the 150/220 GHz detector array. The detectors are photon-noise limited, and we estimate the total array noise-equivalent power (NEP) to be 2.5 and 4 aW$\sqrt{\mathrm{s}}$ for 150 and 220 GHz arrays, respectively.

On-sky Performance of the CLASS Q-band Telescope

Abstract The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is mapping the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at large angular scales (2 &lt; ℓ ≲ 200) in search of a primordial gravitational wave B-mode signal down to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of r ≈ 0.01. The same data set will provide a near sample-variance-limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization. Between 2016 June and 2018 March, CLASS completed the largest ground-based Q-band CMB survey to date, covering over 31,000 square-degrees (75% of the sky), with an instantaneous array noise-equivalent temperature sensitivity of . We demonstrate that the detector optical loading (1.6 pW) and noise-equivalent power (19 ) match the expected noise model dominated by photon bunching noise. We derive a 13.1 ± 0.3 K pW−1 calibration to antenna temperature based on Moon observations, which translates to an optical efficiency of 0.48 ± 0.02 and a 27 K system noise temperature. Finally, we report a Tau A flux density of 308 ± 11 Jy at 38.4 ± 0.2 GHz, consistent with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Tau A time-dependent spectral flux density model.

A Projected Estimate of the Reionization Optical Depth Using the CLASS Experiment’s Sample Variance Limited E-mode Measurement

Abstract We analyze simulated maps of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) experiment and recover a nearly cosmic variance limited estimate of the reionization optical depth τ. We use a power spectrum-based likelihood to simultaneously clean foregrounds and estimate cosmological parameters in multipole space. Using software specifically designed to constrain τ, the amplitude of scalar fluctuations A s , and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r, we demonstrate that the CLASS experiment will be able to estimate τ within a factor of two of the cosmic variance limit allowed by full-sky cosmic microwave background polarization measurements. Additionally, we discuss the role of CLASS’s τ constraint in conjunction with gravitational lensing of the CMB on obtaining a ≳4σ measurement of the sum of the neutrino masses.

Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Focal Plane Development

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) will measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background to search for and characterize the polarized signature of inflation. CLASS will operate from the Atacama Desert and observe $$\sim $$ 70 % of the sky. A variable-delay polarization modulator provides modulation of the polarization at $$\sim $$ 10 Hz to suppress the 1/f noise of the atmosphere and enable the measurement of the large angular scale polarization modes. The measurement of the inflationary signal across angular scales that spans both the recombination and reionization features allows a test of the predicted shape of the polarized angular power spectra in addition to a measurement of the energy scale of inflation. CLASS is an array of telescopes covering frequencies of 38, 93, 148, and 217 GHz. These frequencies straddle the foreground minimum and thus allow the extraction of foregrounds from the primordial signal. Each focal plane contains feedhorn-coupled transition-edge sensors that simultaneously detect two orthogonal linear polarizations. The use of single-crystal silicon as the dielectric for the on-chip transmission lines enables both high efficiency and uniformity in fabrication. Integrated band definition has been implemented that both controls the bandpass of the single-mode transmission on the chip and prevents stray light from coupling to the detectors.

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Characterization of the minute cosmic microwave background polarization signature requires multi-frequency, high-throughput precision instrument systems. We have previously described the detector fabrication of a 40 GHz focal plane and now describe the fabrication of detector modules for measurement of the CMB at 90 GHz. The 90 GHz detectors are a scaled version of the 40 GHz architecture where, due to smaller size detectors, we have implemented a modular (wafer level) rather than the chip-level architecture. The new fabrication process utilizes the same design rules with the added challenge of increased wiring density to the 74 TES's as well as a new wafer level hybridization procedure. The hexagonally shaped modules are tile-able, and as such, can be used to form the large focal planes required for a space-based CMB polarimeter. The detectors described here will be deployed in two focal planes with 7 modules each in the Johns Hopkins University led ground-based Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) telescope.