paper

Statistics of the fractional polarisation of extragalactic dusty sources in Planck HFI maps

arXiv:1705.10603 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2102

Abstract

We estimate the average fractional polarisation at 143, 217 and 353 GHz of a sample of 4697 extragalactic dusty sources by applying stacking technique. The sample is selected from the second version of the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources at 857 GHz, avoiding the region inside the Planck Galactic mask (fsky ~ 60 per cent). We recover values for the mean fractional polarisation at 217 and 353 GHz of (3.10 \pm 0.75) per cent and (3.65 \pm 0.66) per cent, respectively, whereas at 143 GHz we give a tentative value of (3.52 \pm 2.48) per cent. We discuss the possible origin of the measured polarisation, comparing our new estimates with those previously obtained from a sample of radio sources. We test different distribution functions and we conclude that the fractional polarisation of dusty sources is well described by a log-normal distribution, as determined in the radio band studies. For this distribution we estimate μ_{217GHz} = 0.3 \pm 0.5 (that would correspond to a median fractional polarisation of Π_{med} = (1.3 \pm 0.7) per cent) and μ_{353GHz} = 0.7 \pm 0.4 (Π_{med} = (2.0 \pm 0.8) per cent), σ_{217GHz} = 1.3 \pm 0.2 and σ_{353GHz} = 1.1 \pm 0.2. With these values we estimate the source number counts in polarisation and the contribution given by these sources to the CMB B-mode angular power spectrum at 217, 353, 600 and 800 GHz. We conclude that extragalactic dusty sources might be an important contaminant for the primordial B-mode at frequencies > 217 GHz.

arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1703.09952

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