Detecting and distinguishing topological defects in future data from the CMBPol satellite

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.043003· OSTI ID:21504949

Mukherjee, Pia; Liddle, Andrew R; Hindmarsh, Mark ^[1]; Urrestilla, Jon ^[2]; Kunz, Martin ^[3]; Bevis, Neil ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH (United Kingdom)
2. Department of Theoretical Physics, University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU, 48040 Bilbao (Spain)
3. Departement de Physique Theorique, Universite de Geneve, 1211 Geneve 4 (Switzerland)
4. Theoretical Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)

The proposed CMBPol mission will be able to detect the imprint of topological defects on the CMB provided the contribution is sufficiently strong. We quantify the detection threshold for cosmic strings and for textures, and analyze the satellite's ability to distinguish between these different types of defects. We also assess the level of danger of misidentification of a defect signature as from the wrong defect type or as an effect of primordial gravitational waves. A 0.002 fractional contribution of cosmic strings to the CMB temperature spectrum at multipole ten, and similarly a 0.001 fractional contribution of textures, can be detected and correctly identified at the 3{sigma} level. We also confirm that a tensor contribution of r=0.0018 can be detected at over 3{sigma}, in agreement with the CMBPol mission concept study. These results are supported by a model selection analysis.

• OSTI ID: 21504949
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.043003; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
DEFECTS
DETECTION
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
RELICT RADIATION
SATELLITES
SPECTRA
STRING MODELS
TEXTURE
TOPOLOGY
COMPOSITE MODELS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
PARTICLE MODELS
QUARK MODEL
RADIATIONS