The large-scale polarization of the microwave foreground

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2003 · New Astronomy Reviews

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2003.09.012· OSTI ID:893628

de Oliveira-Costa, A; Tegmark, M; O'Dell, C; Keating, B; Timbie, P; Efstathiou, G; Smoot, G

Most of the useful information about inflationary gravitational waves and reionization is on large angular scales where Galactic foreground contamination is the worst, so a key challenge is to model, quantify and remove polarized foregrounds. We use the Leiden radiosurveys to quantify the polarized synchrotron radiation at large angular scales, which is likely to be the most challenging polarized contaminant for the WMAP satellite. We find that the synchrotron E- and B-contributions are equal to within 10 percent from 408-820 MHz with a hint of E-domination at higher frequencies. We quantify Faraday rotation and depolarization effects and show that they cause the synchrotron polarization percentage to drop both towards lower frequencies and towards lower multipoles.

• Research Organization: COLLABORATION - U.Penn
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 893628
• Report Number(s): LBNL--61814
• Journal Information: New Astronomy Reviews, Journal Name: New Astronomy Reviews Journal Issue: 11-12 Vol. 47
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
CONTAMINATION
DEPOLARIZATION
FARADAY EFFECT
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
MULTIPOLES
POLARIZATION
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
SYNCHROTRONS