SPIDER: probing the early Universe with a suborbital polarimeter

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2013/04/047· OSTI ID:22282848

Fraisse, A. A.; Chiang, H. C. ^[1]; Ade, P. A.R. ^[2]; Amiri, M.; Burger, B.; Davis, G. ^[3]; Benton, S. J. ^[4]; Bock, J. J.; Crill, B. P.; Doré, O.; Filippini, J. P.; Golwala, S. ^[5]; Bond, J. R.; Farhang, M. ^[6]; Bonetti, J. A. ^[7]; Bryan, S. ^[8]; Clark, C. N.; Contaldi, C. R. ^[9]; Fissel, L. M.; others, and

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1. Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States)
2. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
4. Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)
5. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)
6. Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)
7. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (United States)
8. Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (United States)
9. Theoretical Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)

We evaluate the ability of SPIDER, a balloon-borne polarimeter, to detect a divergence-free polarization pattern (B-modes) in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In the inflationary scenario, the amplitude of this signal is proportional to that of the primordial scalar perturbations through the tensor-to-scalar ratio r. We show that the expected level of systematic error in the SPIDER instrument is significantly below the amplitude of an interesting cosmological signal with r = 0.03. We present a scanning strategy that enables us to minimize uncertainty in the reconstruction of the Stokes parameters used to characterize the CMB, while accessing a relatively wide range of angular scales. Evaluating the amplitude of the polarized Galactic emission in the SPIDER field, we conclude that the polarized emission from interstellar dust is as bright or brighter than the cosmological signal at all SPIDER frequencies (90 GHz, 150 GHz, and 280 GHz), a situation similar to that found in the ''Southern Hole.'' We show that two ∼ 20-day flights of the SPIDER instrument can constrain the amplitude of the B-mode signal to r < 0.03 (99% CL) even when foreground contamination is taken into account. In the absence of foregrounds, the same limit can be reached after one 20-day flight.

• OSTI ID: 22282848
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2013, Issue 04; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AMPLITUDES
ASTROPHYSICS
BALLOONS
COSMOLOGY
GHZ RANGE
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
PERTURBATION THEORY
POLARIMETERS
POLARIMETRY
POLARIZATION
RELICT RADIATION
STOKES PARAMETERS
TENSORS
UNIVERSE