Bowden, M. and Taylor, A.N. and Ganga, K. and Ade, P.A.R. and Bock, J.J. and Cahill, G. and Carlstrom, J.E. and Church, S. and Gear, W.K. and Hinderks, J.R. and Hu, W. and Keating, B.G. and Kovac, J. and Lange, A.E. and Leitch, E.M. and Maffei, B. and Mallie, O.E. and Melhuish, S.J. and Murphy, J.Anthony and Pisano, G. and Piccirillo, L. and Pryke, C. and Rusholme, B. and O'Sullivan, Créidhe and Thompson, K. (2004) Scientific optimization of a ground-based CMB polarization experiment. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 349. pp. 321-335. ISSN 0035-8711

Preview

Download (944kB) | Preview

Abstract

We investigate the science goals achievable with the upcoming generation of groundbased CosmicMicrowave Background polarization experiments, focusing on one particular experiment, QUaD, a proposed bolometric polarimeter operating from the South Pole. We calculate the optimal sky coverage for this experiment including the effects of foregrounds and gravitational lensing. We find that an E-mode measurement will be sample-limited, while a B-mode measurement will be detector-noise-limited. We conclude that a 300 deg2 survey is an optimal compromise for a two-year experiment to measure both E and B-modes, and that a ground-based polarization experiment can make an important contribution to B-mode surveys. QUaD can make a high significance measurement of the acoustic peaks in the E-mode spectrum, over a multipole range of 25 < ℓ < 2500, and will be able to detect the gravitational lensing signal in the B-mode spectrum. Such an experiment could also directly detect the gravitational wave component of the B-mode spectrum if the amplitude of the signal is close to current upper limits. We also investigate how QUaD can improve constraints on the cosmological parameters. We estimate that combining two years of QUaD data with the four-year WMAP data can improve constraints on bh2, mh2, h, r and ns by a factor of two. If the foreground contamination can be reduced, the measurement of r can be improved by up to a factor of six over that obtainable from WMAP alone. These improved accuracies will place strong constraints on the potential of the inflaton field.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The definitive version of this article is available at M. Bowden, A. N. Taylor, K. M. Ganga, P. A. R. Ade, J. J. Bock, G. Cahill, J. E. Carlstrom, S. E. Church, W. K. Gear, J. R. Hinderks, W. Hu, B. G. Keating, J. Kovac, A. E. Lange, E. M. Leitch, B. Maffei, O. E. Mallie, S. J. Melhuish, J. A. Murphy, G. Pisano, L. Piccirillo, C. Pryke, B. A. Rusholme, C. O'Sullivan, and K. Thompson Scientific optimization of a ground-based CMB polarization experiment MNRAS (2004) Vol. 349 321-335 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07506.x
Keywords:	polarization methods; observational techniques; polarimetric; cosmic microwave; background – cosmological parameters;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Experimental Physics
Item ID:	5937
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07506.x
Depositing User:	Dr. Créidhe O'Sullivan
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2015 16:34
Journal or Publication Title:	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publisher:	Royal Astronomical Society
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads