BICEP/Keck. XVII. Line-of-sight Distortion Analysis: Estimates of Gravitational Lensing, Anisotropic Cosmic Birefringence, Patchy Reionization, and Systematic Errors

Journal Article · Thu May 25 00:00:00 UTC 2023 · The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acc85c · OSTI ID:1991111

Ade, P. A. R. ^[1]; Ahmed, Z.; Amiri, M.; Barkats, D.; Thakur, R. Basu ; Bischoff, C. A. ; Beck, D.; Bock, J. J.; Boenish, H.; Bullock, E.; Buza, V. ; IV, J. Cheshire ; Connors, J.; Cornelison, J.; Crumrine, M.; Cukierman, A. ; Denison, E. V.; Dierickx, M. ; Duband, L.; Eiben, M. ; Fatigoni, S.; Filippini, J. P. ; Fliescher, S.; Giannakopoulos, C.; Goeckner-Wald, N.; Goldfinger, D. C. ; Grayson, J.; Grimes, P. ; Hall, G.; Halal, G. ; Halpern, M. ; Hand, E.; Harrison, S.; Henderson, S.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hubmayr, J.; Hui, H. ; Irwin, K. D. ; Kang, J. ; Karkare, K. S. ; Karpel, E.; Kefeli, S.; Kernasovskiy, S. A.; Kovac, J. M.; Kuo, C. L.; Lau, K. ; Leitch, E. M.; Lennox, A.; Megerian, K. G.; Minutolo, L.; Moncelsi, L. ; Nakato, Y.; Namikawa, T. ; Nguyen, H. T.; O’Brient, R.; IV, R. Ogburn; Palladino, S.; Petroff, M. ; Prouve, T.; Pryke, C. ; Racine, B. ; Reintsema, C. D.; Richter, S.; Schillaci, A.; Schwarz, R.; Schmitt, B. L.; Sheehy, C. D.; Singari, B.; Soliman, A.; Germaine, T. St.; Steinbach, B.; Sudiwala, R. V.; Teply, G. P.; Thompson, K. L.; Tolan, J. E.; Tucker, C.; Turner, A. D.; Umiltà, C.; Vergès, C. ; Vieregg, A. G.; Wandui, A.; Weber, A. C.; Wiebe, D. V.; Willmert, J. ; Wong, C. L.; Wu, W. K.; Yang, H.; Yoon, K. W.; Young, E.; Yu, C.; Zeng, L. ; Zhang, C.; Zhang, S.

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1. Cardiff Univ. (United Kingdom); BICEP/Keck Collaboration et al.; slac

We present estimates of line-of-sight distortion fields derived from the 95 and 150 GHz data taken by BICEP2, BICEP3, and the Keck Array up to the 2018 observing season, leading to cosmological constraints and a study of instrumental and astrophysical systematics. Cosmological constraints are derived from three of the distortion fields concerning gravitational lensing from large-scale structure, polarization rotation from magnetic fields or an axion-like field, and the screening effect of patchy reionization. We measure an amplitude of the lensing power spectrum $${A}_{L}^{\phi \phi }=0.95\pm 0.20$$. We constrain polarization rotation, expressed as the coupling constant of a Chern–Simons electromagnetic term g_aγ ≤ 2.6 × 10^-2/H_I, where H_I is the inflationary Hubble parameter, and an amplitude of primordial magnetic fields smoothed over 1 Mpc B_1Mpc ≤ 6.6 nG at 95 GHz. We constrain the rms of optical depth fluctuations in a simple "crinkly surface" model of patchy reionization, finding A^τ < 0.19 (2σ) for the coherence scale of L_c = 100. We show that all of the distortion fields of the 95 and 150 GHz polarization maps are consistent with simulations including lensed ΛCDM, dust, and noise, with no evidence for instrumental systematics. In some cases, the EB and TB quadratic estimators presented here are more sensitive than our previous map-based null tests at identifying and rejecting spurious B-modes that might arise from instrumental effects. Finally, we verify that the standard deprojection filtering in the BICEP/Keck data processing is effective at removing temperature to polarization leakage.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Contributing Organization: BICEP/Keck Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1991111
• Journal Information: The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 949; ISSN 0004-637X
• Publisher: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English