Detectability of Microwave Background Polarization

Abstract

[NOTE: Previous versions of this paper (both on astro-ph and published in Phys. Rev. D) contain results that are in error. The power spectra C_l were normalized incorrectly by a factor of 2 pi. All observing times in detector-years in those versions are too large by a factor of 2 pi. The main place these numbers appear is on the vertical axes of Figures 4 and 5. Note that because all calculations were based on the same power spectra, all conclusions pertaining to comparisons of different techniques remain unchanged. This error has been corrected in the present version of the paper. An erratum is being sent to Phys. Rev. D. I apologize for the error.] Using a Fisher-matrix formalism, we calculate the required sensitivities and observing times for an experiment to measure the amplitudes of both E and B components as a function of sky coverage, taking full account of the fact that the two components cannot be perfectly separated in an incomplete sky map. We also present a simple approximation scheme that accounts for mixing of E and B components in computing predicted errors in the E-component power spectrum amplitude. In an experiment with small sky coverage, mixing of the two components increases the difficulty of detecting the subdominant B component by a factor of two or more in observing time; however, for larger survey sizes the effect of mixing is less pronounced. Surprisingly, mixing of E and B components can enhance the detectability of the E component by increasing the effective number of independent modes that probe this component

Previous versions of this paper contained results that were in error. The present version on astro-ph has been corrected, and an erratum is being submitted. See abstract for details

References in corpus (6)

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• Cosmological implications of the MAXIMA-I high resolution Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy measurement
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Cited by in corpus (28)

• Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies
• Fast estimation of polarization power spectra using correlation functions
• The shear power spectrum from the COMBO-17 survey
• E/B decomposition of finite pixelized CMB maps
• Primordial Bispectrum Information from CMB Polarization
• Pseudo-$C_{\ell }$ estimators which do not mix E and B modes
• Limits on the detectability of the CMB B-mode polarization imposed by foregrounds
• Shear Power Spectrum Reconstruction using Pseudo-Spectrum Method
• Scientific optimization of a ground-based CMB polarization experiment
• Separating E and B types of polarization on an incomplete sky
• Probing the Universe on Gigaparsec Scales with Remote Cosmic Microwave Background Quadrupole Measurements
• Search for Gravitational Waves in the CMB After WMAP3: Foreground Confusion and The Optimal Frequency Coverage for Foreground Minimization
• Map-making in small field modulated CMB polarisation experiments: approximating the maximum-likelihood method
• Systematic Errors in Cosmic Microwave Background Interferometry
• Impact of modulation on CMB B-mode polarization experiments
• The large-scale polarization of the microwave background and foreground
• Wiener filtering and pure E/B decomposition of CMB maps with anisotropic correlated noise
• Evolution of polarization orientations in a flat universe with vector perturbations: CMB and quasistellar objects
• Pure E and B polarization maps via Wiener filtering
• First attempt at measuring the CMB cross-polarization
• Separating E from B
• Detecting chiral gravity with the pure pseudospectrum reconstruction of the cosmic microwave background polarized anisotropies
• Large scale vector modes and the first CMB temperature multipoles
• Optimal and fast E/B separation with a dual messenger field
• Bayesian Inference of Polarized CMB Power Spectra from Interferometric Data
• Detecting the tensor-to-scalar ratio with the pure pseudospectrum reconstruction of $B$-mode
• A New Upper Limit on the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
• Fisher Matrix Optimization of Cosmic Microwave Background Interferometers