Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Research Articles

Detailed study of HWP non-idealities and their impact on future measurements of CMB polarization anisotropies from space

We study the propagation of a specific class of instrumental systematics to the reconstruction of the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We focus on the non-idealities of the half-wave plate (HWP), a polarization modulator that is to be deployed by future CMB experiments, such as the phase-A satellite mission LiteBIRD. We study the effects of non-ideal HWP properties, such as transmittance, phase shift, and cross-polarization. To this end, we developed a simple, yet stand-alone end-to-end simulation pipeline adapted to LiteBIRD. We analyzed the effects of a possible mismatch between the measured frequency profiles of HWP properties (used in the mapmaking stage of the pipeline) and the actual profiles (used in the sky-scanning step). We simulated single-frequency, CMB-only observations to emphasize the effects of non-idealities on the BB power spectrum. We also considered multi-frequency observations to account for the frequency dependence of HWP properties and the contribution of foreground emission. We quantified the systematic effects in terms of a bias Δr on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, with respect to the ideal case without systematic effects. We derived the accuracy requirements on the measurements of HWP properties by requiring Δr < 10−5 (1% of the expected LiteBIRD sensitivity on r). Our analysis is introduced by a detailed presentation of the mathematical formalism employed in this work, including the use of the Jones and Mueller matrix representations.

Baryonic feedback biases on fundamental physics from lensed CMB power spectra

Upcoming measurements of the small-scale primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization power spectra ($TT$/$TE$/$EE$) are anticipated to yield transformative constraints on new physics, including the effective number of relativistic species in the early universe ($N_{\rm eff}$). However, at multipoles $\ell \gtrsim 3000$, the primary CMB power spectra receive significant contributions from gravitational lensing. While these modes still carry primordial information, their theoretical modeling requires knowledge of the CMB lensing convergence power spectrum, $C_L^{\kappa\kappa}$, including on small scales where it is affected by nonlinear gravitational evolution and baryonic feedback processes. Thus, the high-$\ell$ primary CMB is sensitive to these late-time, nonlinear effects. Here, we show that inaccuracies in the modeling of $C_L^{\kappa\kappa}$ can yield surprisingly large biases on cosmological parameters inferred from the primary CMB power spectra measured by the upcoming Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 experiments. For CMB-S4, the biases can be as large as $1.6\sigma$ on the Hubble constant $H_0$ in a fit to $\Lambda$CDM and $1.2\sigma$ on $N_{\rm eff}$ in a fit to $\Lambda$CDM+$N_{\rm eff}$. We show that these biases can be mitigated by explicitly discarding all $TT$ data at $\ell>3000$ or by marginalizing over parameters describing baryonic feedback processes, both at the cost of slightly larger error bars. We also discuss an alternative, data-driven mitigation strategy based on delensing the CMB $T$ and $E$-mode maps. Finally, we show that analyses of upcoming data will require Einstein-Boltzmann codes to be run with much higher numerical precision settings than is currently standard, so as to avoid similar -- or larger -- parameter biases due to inaccurate theoretical predictions.

CosmoPower: emulating cosmological power spectra for accelerated Bayesian inference from next-generation surveys

ABSTRACT We present CosmoPower, a suite of neural cosmological power spectrum emulators providing orders-of-magnitude acceleration for parameter estimation from two-point statistics analyses of Large-Scale Structure (LSS) and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) surveys. The emulators replace the computation of matter and CMB power spectra from Boltzmann codes; thus, they do not need to be re-trained for different choices of astrophysical nuisance parameters or redshift distributions. The matter power spectrum emulation error is less than $0.4{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in the wavenumber range $k \in [10^{-5}, 10] \, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ for redshift z ∈ [0, 5]. CosmoPower emulates CMB temperature, polarization, and lensing potential power spectra in the 5-σ region of parameter space around the Planck best-fitting values with an error ${\lesssim}10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the expected shot noise for the forthcoming Simons Observatory. CosmoPower is showcased on a joint cosmic shear and galaxy clustering analysis from the Kilo-Degree Survey, as well as on a Stage IV Euclid-like simulated cosmic shear analysis. For the CMB case, CosmoPower is tested on a Planck 2018 CMB temperature and polarization analysis. The emulators always recover the fiducial cosmological constraints with differences in the posteriors smaller than sampling noise, while providing a speed-up factor up to O(104) to the complete inference pipeline. This acceleration allows posterior distributions to be recovered in just a few seconds, as we demonstrate in the Planck likelihood case. CosmoPower is written entirely in python, can be interfaced with all commonly used cosmological samplers, and is publicly available at: https://github.com/alessiospuriomancini/cosmopower.

Estimation method for beam size of superconducting transition edge detector

Owing to its extremely low noise equivalent power, superconducting transition edge detectors have been widely used in various international cosmic microwave background polarization observation projects in recent years. In order to ensure that the detector works in the best performance range, the saturation power value of the detector needs to be adjusted according to the meteorological conditions of the observation site and the observation band, and the structural size of the detector beam directly determines the saturation power. Owing to process differences and other reasons, the beam sizes obtained under different processing schemes often cannot be directly used for horizontal comparison. In previous observation projects, a series of devices with different sizes were generally processed and measured one by one, and then the actual required size was inferred by fitting the relationship between the measured saturated power and the beam size. In order to match the target value, multiple machining iterations are often required. In this work, the boundary-restricted phonon transport model is used to successfully integrate the device parameters from previous observation projects to estimate the size of the transition edge sensor (TES) beam. According to the estimated value, the TES detector chips for detecting cosmic microwave background polarization signal are fabricated for the first time in China. Measurements show that its parameters deviate slightly from the target value. This method can well estimate the sizes of similar TES detectors, and thus has guiding significance for designing TES detectors in the future.

Crab nebula at 260 GHz with the NIKA2 polarimeter: Implications for the polarization angle calibration of future CMB experiments

The quest for primordial gravitational waves enclosed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization B-modes signal motivates the development of a new generation of high sensitive experiments (e.g. CMBS4, LiteBIRD), thus allowing to probe the inflationary epoch in the early Universe. However, this will be only possible by ensuring a high control of the instrumental systematic effects and an accurate absolute calibration of the polarization angle. The Crab nebula is known to be a polarization calibrator on the sky for CMB experiments. Already used for the Planck satellite it exhibits a high polarized signal at microwave wavelengths. In this work we present Crab polarization observations obtained, in the 260 GHz frequency band, with the NIKA2 instrument. Furthermore, we discuss the accuracy needed on such a measurement to improve the constraints on the absolute angle calibration for CMB experiments.

Probing prerecombination physics by the cross-correlation of stochastic gravitational waves and CMB anisotropies

We study the effects of pre-recombination physics on the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) anisotropies induced by the propagation of gravitons through the large-scale density perturbations and their cross-correlation with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and E-mode polarization ones. As examples of Early Universe extensions to the $\Lambda$CDM model, we consider popular models featuring extra relativistic degrees of freedom, a massless non-minimally coupled scalar field, and an Early Dark Energy component. Assuming the detection of a SGWB, we perform a Fisher analysis to assess in a quantitative way the capability of future gravitational wave interferometers (GWIs) in conjunction with a future large-scale CMB polarization experiment to constrain such variations. Our results show that the cross-correlation of CMB and SGWB anisotropies will help tighten the constraints obtained with CMB alone, with an improvement that significantly depends on the specific model as well as the maximum angular resolution $\ell_{\rm max}^{\rm GW}$ of the GWIs, their designed sensitivity, and the amplitude $A_*$ of the monopole of the SGWB.

Dark twilight joined with the light of dawn to unveil the reionization history

Improved measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization from Planck allows a detailed study of reionization beyond the average optical depth. The lower value of the optical depth disfavours an early onset and an early completion of reionization in favour of a redsfhit range where different astrophysical probes provide sensible information on the sources of reionization and the status of the intergalactic medium. In this work we extend our previous study in which we constrained reionization by combining three different probes - CMB, UV luminosity density and neutral hydrogen fraction data - in both treatment and data: we first allow variation in the UV source term varying the product of the efficiency of conversion of UV luminosity into ionizing photons and the escape fraction together with the reionization and cosmological parameters, and then we investigate the impact of a less conservative cut for the UV luminosity function. We find that the estimate for the efficiency is consistent within 95% C.L. with the fixed value we considered in our previous results and is mostly constrained by the QHII data. We find that allowing the efficiency to vary does not affect significantly our results for the average optical depth for monotonic reionization histories, recovering $\tau=0.0519_{-0.0008}^{+0.0010}$ at 68% CL , consistent with our previous studies. Using a less conservative cut for the UV luminosity function, we find $\tau=0.0541_{-0.0016}^{+0.0013}$ at 68% CL, due to the faint end of the luminosity function in the data we use, that also prefers a larger contribution from higher redshifts.

Reconstruction of the neutrino mass as a function of redshift

We reconstruct the neutrino mass as a function of redshift, $z$, from current cosmological data using both standard binned priors and linear spline priors with variable knots. Using cosmic microwave background temperature, polarization and lensing data, in combination with distance measurements from baryonic acoustic oscillations and supernovae, we find that the neutrino mass is consistent with $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}(z)=\mathrm{const}$. We obtain a larger bound on the neutrino mass at low redshifts coinciding with the onset of dark energy domination, $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}(z=0)<1.46\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ (95% CL). This result can be explained either by the well-known degeneracy between $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Omega}}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}}$ at low redshifts, or by models in which neutrino masses are generated very late in the Universe. We finally convert our results into cosmological limits for models with nonrelativistic neutrino decay and find $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}<0.21\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ (95% CL), which would be out of reach for the KATRIN experiment.

Development of a 70–110 GHz silicon corrugated horn for cosmic microwave background experiment

Next generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization telescope will use large arrays of receiver with nearly 100 000 transition edge sensor (TES) detectors and receiving antennas. Such large TES and antenna array is a big challenge for the fabrication of TES and antennas. A 35-layers silicon-platelet corrugated horn for 70–110 GHz is designed and fabricated based on the micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology. Compared with the traditional corrugated horn, the last layer of the 35-layers silicon-platelet is designed with no corrugation to increase the beam symmetry. A parametric HFSS model of the horn was established to evaluate the performance of the horn and effect of fabrication process. The measured S11 and cross-polarization of the fabricated prototype horn are both below −20 dB while the sidelobe at 70 and 90 GHz is below −20 dB. The beam symmetry of the horn is good in 70–110 GHz band. The measured gain is greater than 15 dBi. These results show that the performance of the designed horn meets the requirement of CMB experiment.

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 <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.

Unlocking the synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies

Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions (SDs) will open a new window on the very early universe, providing new information complementary to that gathered from CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies. In this paper, we study their synergy as a function of the characteristics of the considered experiments. In particular, we examine a wide range of sensitivities for possible SD measurements, spanning from FIRAS up to noise levels 1000 times better than PIXIE, and study their constraining power when combined with current or future CMB anisotropy experiments such as Planck or LiteBIRD plus CMB-S4. We consider a number of different cosmological models such as the ΛCDM, as well as its extensions with the running of the scalar spectral index, the decay or the annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles. While upcoming CMB anisotropy experiments will be able to decrease the uncertainties on inflationary parameters such as As and ns by about a factor 2 in the ΛCDM case, we find that an SD experiment 100 times more sensitive than PIXIE (comparable to the proposed Super-PIXIE satellite) could potentially further contribute to constrain these parameters. This is even more significant in the case of the running of the scalar spectral index. Furthermore, as expected, constraints on DM particles decaying at redshifts probed by SDs will improve by orders of magnitude even with an experiment 10 times worse than PIXIE as compared to CMB anisotropies or Big Bang Nucleosynthesis bounds. On the contrary, DM annihilation constraints will not significantly improve over CMB anisotropy measurements. Finally, we forecast the constraints obtainable with sensitivities achievable either from the ground or from a balloon.

Optimal Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing Reconstruction and Parameter Estimation with SPTpol Data

Abstract We perform the first simultaneous Bayesian parameter inference and optimal reconstruction of the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), using 100 deg2 of polarization observations from the SPTpol receiver on the South Pole Telescope. These data reach noise levels as low as 5.8 μK arcmin in polarization, which are low enough that the typically used quadratic estimator (QE) technique for analyzing CMB lensing is significantly suboptimal. Conversely, the Bayesian procedure extracts all lensing information from the data and is optimal at any noise level. We infer the amplitude of the gravitational lensing potential to be A ϕ = 0.949 ± 0.122 using the Bayesian pipeline, consistent with our QE pipeline result, but with 17% smaller error bars. The Bayesian analysis also provides a simple way to account for systematic uncertainties, performing a similar job as frequentist “bias hardening” or linear bias correction, and reducing the systematic uncertainty on A ϕ due to polarization calibration from almost half of the statistical error to effectively zero. Finally, we jointly constrain A ϕ along with A L, the amplitude of lensing-like effects on the CMB power spectra, demonstrating that the Bayesian method can be used to easily infer parameters both from an optimal lensing reconstruction and from the delensed CMB, while exactly accounting for the correlation between the two. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the Bayesian approach on real data, and pave the way for future analysis of deep CMB polarization measurements with SPT-3G, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4, where improvements relative to the QE can reach 1.5 times tighter constraints on A ϕ and seven times lower effective lensing reconstruction noise.

Single frequency CMB B-mode inference with realistic foregrounds from a single training image

ABSTRACT With a single training image and using wavelet phase harmonic augmentation, we present polarized Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) foreground marginalization in a high-dimensional likelihood-free (Bayesian) framework. We demonstrate robust foreground removal using only a single frequency of simulated data for a BICEP-like sky patch. Using Moment Networks, we estimate the pixel-level posterior probability for the underlying {E, B} signal and validate the statistical model with a quantile-type test using the estimated marginal posterior moments. The Moment Networks use a hierarchy of U-Net convolutional neural networks. This work validates such an approach in the most difficult limiting case: pixel-level, noise-free, highly non-Gaussian dust foregrounds with a single training image at a single frequency. For a real CMB experiment, a small number of representative sky patches would provide the training data required for full cosmological inference. These results enable robust likelihood-free, simulation-based parameter, and model inference for primordial B-mode detection using observed CMB polarization data.

Fast Scalar Quadratic Maximum Likelihood Estimators for the CMB B-mode Power Spectrum

Abstract Constructing a fast and efficient estimator for the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is of critical importance for CMB science. For a general CMB survey, the Quadratic Maximum Likelihood (QML) estimator for CMB polarization has been proved to be the optimal estimator with minimal uncertainties, but it is computationally very expensive. In this article, we propose two new QML methods for B-mode power spectrum estimation. We use the Smith–Zaldarriaga approach to prepare the pure B-mode map and the E-mode recycling method to obtain a leakage free B-mode map. We then use the scalar QML estimator to analyze the scalar pure B map (QML-SZ) or B-mode map (QML-TC). The QML-SZ and QML-TC estimators have similar error bars as the standard QML estimators but their computational cost is nearly one order of magnitude smaller. The basic idea is that one can construct the pure B-mode CMB map by using the E–B separation method proposed by Smith & Zaldarriaga (SZ) or the one considering the template cleaning (TC) technique, then apply the QML estimator to these scalar fields. By simulating potential observations of space-based and ground-based detectors, we test the reliability of these estimators by comparing them with the corresponding results of the traditional QML estimator and the pure B-mode pseudo-C ℓ estimator.

The Crab Nebula as a Calibrator for Wide-beam Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Surveys

Abstract We analyze the effect of polarized diffuse emission in the calibration of wide-beam millimeter-wave polarimeters, when using the Crab Nebula as a reference source for both polarized brightness and polarization angle. We show that, for CMB polarization experiments aiming at detecting B-mode in a scenario with a tensor to scalar ratio r ∼ 0.001, wide (a few degrees in diameter), precise ( σ Q , σ U ∼ 20 μ K CMB arcmin ), high angular resolution (<FWHM) reference maps are needed to properly take into account the effects of diffuse polarized emission and avoid significant bias in the calibration.

B modes from postinflationary gravitational waves sourced by axionic instabilities at cosmic reionization

We show that axion-like particles that only couple to invisible dark photons can generate visible B-mode signals around the reionization epoch. The axion field starts rolling shortly before reionization, resulting in a tachyonic instability for the dark photons. This generates an exponential growth of the dark photon quanta sourcing both scalar metric modes and gravitational waves that leave an imprint on the reionized baryons. The tensor modes modify the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization at reionization, generating visible B-mode signatures for the next generation of CMB experiments for parameter ranges that satisfy the current experimental constraints.

Varying fundamental constants principal component analysis: additional hints about the Hubble tension

ABSTRACT Varying fundamental constants (VFC; e.g. the fine-structure constant, αEM) can arise in numerous extended cosmologies. Through their effect on the decoupling of baryons and photons during last scattering and reionization, these models can be directly constrained using measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies. Previous investigations focused mainly on time-independent changes to the values of fundamental constants. Here we generalize to time-dependent variations. Instead of directly studying various VFC parametrizations, we perform a model-independent principal component analysis (PCA), directly using an eigenmode decomposition of the varying constant during recombination. After developing the formalism, we use Planck 2018 data to obtain new VFC limits, showing that three independent VFC modes can be constrained at present. No indications for significant departures from the standard model are found with Planck data. Cosmic variance limited modes are also compared and simple forecasts for the Simons Observatory are carried out, showing that in the future improvements of the current constraints by a factor of ≃3 can be anticipated. Our modes focus solely on VFC at redshifts z ≥ 300. This implies that they do not capture some of the degrees of freedom relating to the reionization era. This aspect provides important new insights into the possible origin of the Hubble tension, hinting that indeed a combined modification of recombination and reionization physics could be at work. An extended PCA, covering both recombination and reionization simultaneously, could shed more light on this question, as we emphasize here.

Most constraining cosmological neutrino mass bounds

We present here up-to-date neutrino mass limits exploiting the most recent cosmological data sets. By making use of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuation and polarization measurements, supernovae Ia luminosity distances, baryon acoustic oscillation observations and determinations of the growth rate parameter, we are able to set the most constraining bound to date, $\ensuremath{\sum}{m}_{\ensuremath{\nu}}<0.09\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ at 95% C.L. This very tight limit is obtained without the assumption of any prior on the value of the Hubble constant and highly compromises the viability of the inverted mass ordering as the underlying neutrino mass pattern in nature. The results obtained here further strengthen the case for very large multitracer spectroscopic surveys as unique laboratories for cosmological relics, such as neutrinos: that would be the case of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey and of the Euclid mission.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Microwave Intensity and Polarization Maps of the Galactic Center

Abstract We present arcminute-resolution intensity and polarization maps of the Galactic center made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The maps cover a 32 deg2 field at 98, 150, and 224 GHz with ∣l∣ ≤ 4°, ∣b∣ ≤ 2°. We combine these data with Planck observations at similar frequencies to create coadded maps with increased sensitivity at large angular scales. With the coadded maps, we are able to resolve many known features of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) in both total intensity and polarization. We map the orientation of the plane-of-sky component of the Galactic magnetic field inferred from the polarization angle in the CMZ, finding significant changes in morphology in the three frequency bands as the underlying dominant emission mechanism changes from synchrotron to dust emission. Selected Galactic center sources, including Sgr A*, the Brick molecular cloud (G0.253+0.016), the Mouse pulsar wind nebula (G359.23-0.82), and the Tornado supernova remnant candidate (G357.7-0.1), are examined in detail. These data illustrate the potential for leveraging ground-based cosmic microwave background polarization experiments for Galactic science.

Relic cosmological vector fields and inflationary gravitational waves

We show that relic vector fields can significantly impact a spectrum of primordial gravitational waves in the post-inflationary era. We consider a triplet of U(1) fields in a homogeneous, isotropic configuration. The interaction between the gravitational waves and the vector fields, from the end of reheating to the present day, yields novel spectral features. The amplitude, tilt, shape, and net chirality of the gravitational wave spectrum are shown to depend on the abundance of the electric- and magnetic-like vector fields. Our results show that even a modest abundance can have strong implications for efforts to detect the imprint of gravitational waves on the cosmic microwave background polarization. We find that a vector field comprising less than two percent of the energy density during the radiation dominated era can have a greater than order unity effect on the predicted inflationary gravitational wave spectrum.