Forecasting ground-based sensitivity to the Rayleigh scattering of the CMB in the presence of astrophysical foregrounds

Journal Article · Mon May 09 04:00:00 EDT 2022 · TBD

OSTI ID:1870649

Dibert, Karia R. ^[1]; Anderson, Adam J. ^[2]; Bender, Amy N. ^[3]; Benson, Bradford A. ^[2]; Bianchini, Federico ^[4]; Carlstrom, John E. ^[1]; Crawford, Thomas M. ^[1]; Omori, Yuuki ^[1]; Pan, Zhaodi ^[5]; Raghunathan, Srinivasan ^[6]; Reichardt, Christian L. ^[7]; Wu, W.L. Kimmy ^[4]

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1. Chicago U.
2. Chicago U.; Fermilab
3. Chicago U.; Argonne
4. KIPAC, Menlo Park; SLAC
5. Argonne
6. NCSA, Urbana
7. Melbourne U.

The Rayleigh scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons off the neutral hydrogen produced during recombination effectively creates an additional scattering surface after recombination that encodes new cosmological information, including the expansion and ionization history of the universe. A first detection of Rayleigh scattering is a tantalizing target for next-generation CMB experiments. We have developed a Rayleigh scattering forecasting pipeline that includes instrumental effects, atmospheric noise, and astrophysical foregrounds (e.g., Galactic dust, cosmic infrared background, or CIB, and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect). We forecast the Rayleigh scattering detection significance for several upcoming ground-based experiments, including SPT-3G+, Simons Observatory, CCAT-prime, and CMB-S4, and examine the limitations from atmospheric and astrophysical foregrounds as well as potential mitigation strategies. When combined with Planck data, we estimate that the ground-based experiments will detect Rayleigh scattering with a significance between 1.6 and 3.7, primarily limited by atmospheric noise and the CIB.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1870649
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-22-389-LDRD-PPD; arXiv:2205.04494; oai:inspirehep.net:2079461
• Journal Information: TBD, Journal Name: TBD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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