Measuring the Power Spectrum of Primordial Gravitational Waves

Lead Research Organisation: Imperial College London
Department Name: Physics

Abstract

Detecting the Cosmological Gravitational Wave Background (CGWB) through its imprint on the polarisation on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) will be one of the major experimental challenges over the next decade. Extracting a signal of less than one part in one million of the 3K mean CMB temperature, and separating that signal from instrumental and astrophysical foregrounds that will themselves be orders of magnitude larger requires not only exquisitely sensitive detectors but also meticulous attention to detail in the data analysis. The development of robust tools for this analysis will require assembling current experimental and theoretical information on astrophysical foregrounds, further development of existing computer codes for CMB power spectrum analaysis, and testing those codes on simulations. Only this level of effort will allow the application of these tools to real data expected by the end of the decade.
 
Description How foregrounds affect CMB B-mode searches
Exploitation Route Used by cosmological experiments
Sectors Education
 
Description Spider colaboration 
Organisation California Institute of Technology
Department Physics
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution PI + Research fellow worked on the data analysis pipeline for the Spider Cosmic Microwave Background balloon-borne telescope. Spider is scheduled to fly from Antarctica in December 2010. The pipeline includes a simulation suite modeling the observed timestream and a galactic foreground model which will form a central part of the foreground removal package in the data analysis pipeline.
Impact The outcome of the collaboration will be a set of polarisation maps of the CMB on large angular scales. The aim is to reach sensitivity levels that will allow the detection of gravitational wave signals in the polarisation of the CMB for the first time.
 
Description Spider colaboration 
Organisation Case Western Reserve University
Department Department of Physics
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution PI + Research fellow worked on the data analysis pipeline for the Spider Cosmic Microwave Background balloon-borne telescope. Spider is scheduled to fly from Antarctica in December 2010. The pipeline includes a simulation suite modeling the observed timestream and a galactic foreground model which will form a central part of the foreground removal package in the data analysis pipeline.
Impact The outcome of the collaboration will be a set of polarisation maps of the CMB on large angular scales. The aim is to reach sensitivity levels that will allow the detection of gravitational wave signals in the polarisation of the CMB for the first time.
 
Description Spider colaboration 
Organisation Princeton University
Department Department of Physics
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution PI + Research fellow worked on the data analysis pipeline for the Spider Cosmic Microwave Background balloon-borne telescope. Spider is scheduled to fly from Antarctica in December 2010. The pipeline includes a simulation suite modeling the observed timestream and a galactic foreground model which will form a central part of the foreground removal package in the data analysis pipeline.
Impact The outcome of the collaboration will be a set of polarisation maps of the CMB on large angular scales. The aim is to reach sensitivity levels that will allow the detection of gravitational wave signals in the polarisation of the CMB for the first time.