SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS IN INTERFEROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND POLARIZATION
- Department of Physics, Brown University, 182 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02912 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
- Department of Physics, 1110 W. Green Street, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
The detection of the primordial B-mode spectrum of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal may provide a probe of inflation. However, observation of such a faint signal requires excellent control of systematic errors. Interferometry proves to be a promising approach for overcoming such a challenge. In this paper we present a complete simulation pipeline of interferometric observations of CMB polarization, including systematic errors. We employ two different methods for obtaining the power spectra from mock data produced by simulated observations: the maximum likelihood method and the method of Gibbs sampling. We show that the results from both methods are consistent with each other as well as, within a factor of six, with analytical estimates. Several categories of systematic errors are considered: instrumental errors, consisting of antenna gain and antenna coupling errors; and beam errors, consisting of antenna pointing errors, beam cross-polarization, and beam shape (and size) errors. In order to recover the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, within a 10% tolerance level, which ensures the experiment is sensitive enough to detect the B-signal at r = 0.01 in the multipole range 28 < l < 384, we find that, for a QUBIC-like experiment, Gaussian-distributed systematic errors must be controlled with precisions of |g{sub rms}| = 0.1 for antenna gain, |{epsilon}{sub rms}| = 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} for antenna coupling, {delta}{sub rms} Almost-Equal-To 0. Degree-Sign 7 for pointing, {zeta}{sub rms} Almost-Equal-To 0. Degree-Sign 7 for beam shape, and {mu}{sub rms} = 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} for beam cross-polarization. Although the combined systematic effects produce a tolerance level on r twice as large for an experiment with linear polarizers, the resulting bias in r for a circular experiment is 15% which is still on the level of desirable sensitivity.
- OSTI ID:
- 22140347
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 207, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0067-0049
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
PRIMORDIAL GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTABILITY WITH DEEP SMALL-SKY COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND EXPERIMENTS
DETECTION OF SIGNALS FROM COSMIC REIONIZATION USING RADIO INTERFEROMETRIC SIGNAL PROCESSING