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.
Publications
O'Dea D
(2012)
A model for polarized microwave foreground emission from interstellar dust Foreground emission from interstellar dust
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rocha G
(2011)
Application of XFaster power spectrum and likelihood estimator to Planck XFaster applied to Planck
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Runyan M
(2010)
Design and performance of the SPIDER instrument
Jones W
(2007)
Instrumental and analytic methods for bolometric polarimetry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bryan S
(2010)
Modeling and characterization of the SPIDER half-wave plate
Ade P
(2015)
POLARBEAR constraints on cosmic birefringence and primordial magnetic fields
in Physical Review D
O'Dea D
(2011)
SPIDER OPTIMIZATION. II. OPTICAL, MAGNETIC, AND FOREGROUND EFFECTS
in The Astrophysical Journal
MacTavish C
(2008)
Spider Optimization: Probing the Systematics of a Large-Scale B -Mode Experiment
in The Astrophysical Journal
Crill B
(2008)
SPIDER: a balloon-borne large-scale CMB polarimeter
Gudmundsson J
(2010)
Thermal architecture for the SPIDER flight cryostat
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. |