Study of the Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology (EPIC)-Intemediate Mission for NASA's Einstein Inflation Probe

Abstract

Measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy have served as the best experimental probe of the early universe to date. The inflationary paradigm, inspired in part by the extreme isotropy of the CMB, is now a cornerstone in modern cosmology. Inflation has passed a series of rigorous experimental tests, but we still do not understand the physical mechanism or energy scale behind inflation. A general prediction of inflation and one that can provide certain insights into inflationary physics is a background of primordial gravitational waves. These perturbations leave a distinct signature in the CMB B-modes of polarization. The EPIC (Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology) study team has investigated several CMB polarization mission concepts to carry out a definitive measurement of the inflationary B-mode polarization spectrum. In this report we study a mission with an aperture intermediate between the two missions discussed in our previous report. EPIC-IM's increased aperture allows access to a broader science case than the small EPIC-Low Cost mission. In addition to the search for inflationary gravitational waves, the increase aperture allows us to mine the scale polarization and lensing shear polarization signals down to cosmological limits, so that we extract virtually all the cosmological information available from the CMB. In addition, a modest number of channels operating at higher frequencies allows for an all-sky measurement of polarized Galactic dust, which will provide a rich dataset for Galactic science related to magnetic fields. Using a combination of a large sensitivity focal plane with a new optical design, and an efficient 4K mechanical cooler, EPIC-IM realizes higher sensitivity than EPIC-Comprehensive Science mission.

157 pages. This report presents the EPIC mission concept for NASA's Inflation Probe (CMBpol) for CMB polarization measurements with an aperture intermediate between the previous EPIC-Low Cost and Comprehensive Science missions studied in arXiv:0805.4207

References in corpus (3)

• CMB Polarization Systematics Due to Beam Asymmetry: Impact on Cosmological Birefringence
• The Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology (EPIC): A Mission Concept Study for NASA's Einstein Inflation Probe
• CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Reionization Science with the Cosmic Microwave Background

Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Inflation and the Scale Dependent Spectral Index: Prospects and Strategies
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• Primordial Gravitational Waves and Cosmology
• Constraining the general reheating phase in the $\alpha$-attractor inflationary cosmology
• Spin characterisation of systematics in CMB surveys -- a comprehensive formalism
• Lyth Bound, eternal inflation and future cosmological missions
• Reconstruction of $\alpha$-attractor supergravity models of inflation
• Statistical imprints of CMB B-type polarization leakage in an incomplete sky survey analysis
• Blind Map Level Systematics Cleaning: A Quadratic Estimator Approach
• Multi-dimensional optimisation of the scanning strategy for the LiteBIRD space mission
• Consequences of constant elevation scans for instrumental systematics in Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments
• Fast map-based simulations of systematics in CMB surveys including effects of the scanning strategy
• High-sensitivity transition-edge-sensed bolometers: improved speed and characterization with AC and DC bias
• Probing CMB Secondary Anisotropies through Minkowski Functionals