The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2022)
The Simons Observatory: Galactic Science Goals and Forecasts
- Brandon S. Hensley,
- Susan E. Clark,
- Valentina Fanfani,
- Nicoletta Krachmalnicoff,
- Giulio Fabbian,
- Davide Poletti,
- Giuseppe Puglisi,
- Gabriele Coppi,
- Jacob Nibauer,
- Roman Gerasimov,
- Nicholas Galitzki,
- Steve K. Choi,
- Peter C. Ashton,
- Carlo Baccigalupi,
- Eric Baxter,
- Blakesley Burkhart,
- Erminia Calabrese,
- Jens Chluba,
- Josquin Errard,
- Andrei V. Frolov,
- Carlos Hervías-Caimapo,
- Kevin M. Huffenberger,
- Bradley R. Johnson,
- Baptiste Jost,
- Brian Keating,
- Heather McCarrick,
- Federico Nati,
- Mayuri Sathyanarayana Rao,
- Alexander van Engelen,
- Samantha Walker,
- Kevin Wolz,
- Zhilei Xu,
- Ningfeng Zhu,
- Andrea Zonca
Affiliations
- Brandon S. Hensley
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ; [email protected]
- Susan E. Clark
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Stanford University , Stanford, CA 94305, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University , Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Valentina Fanfani
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca , Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy
- Nicoletta Krachmalnicoff
- ORCiD
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) , Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU) , Via Beirut 2, I-34151 Grignano (TS), Italy; National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) , Sezione di Trieste, Via Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
- Giulio Fabbian
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA; School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, UK
- Davide Poletti
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca , Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy
- Giuseppe Puglisi
- ORCiD
- Università di Roma—Tor Vergata , Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy; Computational Cosmology Center , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Physics, University of California , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Gabriele Coppi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca , Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) , Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy
- Jacob Nibauer
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ; [email protected]; Center for Particle Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Roman Gerasimov
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
- Nicholas Galitzki
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California San Diego , La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- Steve K. Choi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Department of Astronomy, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Peter C. Ashton
- SOFIA-USRA, NASA Ames Research Center , MS N232-12, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA; Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Carlo Baccigalupi
- ORCiD
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) , Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU) , Via Beirut 2, I-34151 Grignano (TS), Italy; National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) , Sezione di Trieste, Via Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
- Eric Baxter
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai’i , 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- Blakesley Burkhart
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University , 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
- Erminia Calabrese
- ORCiD
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff, Wales CF24 3AA, UK
- Jens Chluba
- ORCiD
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester , Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
- Josquin Errard
- ORCiD
- Université de Paris , CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, F-75013 Paris, France
- Andrei V. Frolov
- ORCiD
- Simon Fraser University , Department of Physics, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby BC, Canada
- Carlos Hervías-Caimapo
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
- Kevin M. Huffenberger
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
- Bradley R. Johnson
- ORCiD
- University of Virginia , Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
- Baptiste Jost
- Université de Paris , CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, F-75013 Paris, France
- Brian Keating
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California San Diego , La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- Heather McCarrick
- ORCiD
- Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Federico Nati
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca , Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy
- Mayuri Sathyanarayana Rao
- ORCiD
- Raman Research Institute , C V Raman Avenue, Sadashivanagar, Bengaluru 560097, India
- Alexander van Engelen
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Samantha Walker
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder, CO 80309, USA; Quantum Sensors Group, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) , Boulder, CO, 80305, USA
- Kevin Wolz
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) , Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy
- Zhilei Xu
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Ningfeng Zhu
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Andrea Zonca
- ORCiD
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego , La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5e36
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 929,
no. 2
p. 166
Abstract
Observing in six frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz over a large sky area, the Simons Observatory (SO) is poised to address many questions in Galactic astrophysics in addition to its principal cosmological goals. In this work, we provide quantitative forecasts on astrophysical parameters of interest for a range of Galactic science cases. We find that SO can: constrain the frequency spectrum of polarized dust emission at a level of Δ β _d ≲ 0.01 and thus test models of dust composition that predict that β _d in polarization differs from that measured in total intensity; measure the correlation coefficient between polarized dust and synchrotron emission with a factor of two greater precision than current constraints; exclude the nonexistence of exo-Oort clouds at roughly 2.9 σ if the true fraction is similar to the detection rate of giant planets; map more than 850 molecular clouds with at least 50 independent polarization measurements at 1 pc resolution; detect or place upper limits on the polarization fractions of CO(2–1) emission and anomalous microwave emission at the 0.1% level in select regions; and measure the correlation coefficient between optical starlight polarization and microwave polarized dust emission in 1° patches for all lines of sight with N _H ≳ 2 × 10 ^20 cm ^−2 . The goals and forecasts outlined here provide a roadmap for other microwave polarization experiments to expand their scientific scope via Milky Way astrophysics. ^37
Keywords
- Interstellar medium
- Interstellar magnetic fields
- Interstellar molecules
- Interstellar dust
- Polarimetry
- Interstellar synchrotron emission
