Sensitivity-improved Polarization Maps at 40 GHz with CLASS and WMAP Data

Rui Shi; John W. Appel; Charles L. Bennett; Ricardo Bustos; David T. Chuss; Sumit Dahal; Jullianna Denes Couto; Joseph R. Eimer; Thomas Essinger-Hileman; Kathleen Harrington; Jeffrey Iuliano; Yunyang Li; Tobias A. Marriage; Matthew A. Petroff; Karwan Rostem; Zeya Song; Deniz A. N. Valle; Duncan J. Watts; Janet L. Weiland; Edward J. Wollack; Zhilei Xu

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad5313

The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)

Sensitivity-improved Polarization Maps at 40 GHz with CLASS and WMAP Data

Rui Shi,
John W. Appel,
Charles L. Bennett,
Ricardo Bustos,
David T. Chuss,
Sumit Dahal,
Jullianna Denes Couto,
Joseph R. Eimer,
Thomas Essinger-Hileman,
Kathleen Harrington,
Jeffrey Iuliano,
Yunyang Li,
Tobias A. Marriage,
Matthew A. Petroff,
Karwan Rostem,
Zeya Song,
Deniz A. N. Valle,
Duncan J. Watts,
Janet L. Weiland,
Edward J. Wollack,
Zhilei Xu

Affiliations

Rui Shi: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
John W. Appel: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Charles L. Bennett: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Ricardo Bustos: ORCiD; Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción , Alonso de Ribera 2850, Concepción, Chile
David T. Chuss: ORCiD; Department of Physics, Villanova University , 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
Sumit Dahal: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Jullianna Denes Couto: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Joseph R. Eimer: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Thomas Essinger-Hileman: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Kathleen Harrington: ORCiD; High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439, USA; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago , 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Jeffrey Iuliano: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Yunyang Li: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Tobias A. Marriage: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Matthew A. Petroff: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Karwan Rostem: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Zeya Song: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Deniz A. N. Valle: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Duncan J. Watts: ORCiD; Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo , P.O. Box 1029 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway
Janet L. Weiland: ORCiD; William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3701 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA ; [email protected]
Edward J. Wollack: ORCiD; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Zhilei Xu: ORCiD; MIT Kavli Institute , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad5313
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 971, no. 1
p. 41

Abstract

Read online

Improved polarization measurements at frequencies below 70 GHz with degree-level angular resolution are crucial for advancing our understanding of the Galactic synchrotron radiation and the potential polarized anomalous microwave emission and ultimately benefiting the detection of primordial B modes. In this study, we present sensitivity-improved 40 GHz polarization maps obtained by combining the CLASS 40 GHz and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Q -band data through a weighted average in the harmonic domain. The decision to include WMAP Q -band data stems from similarities in the bandpasses. Leveraging the accurate large-scale measurements from the WMAP Q band and the high-sensitivity information from the CLASS 40 GHz band at intermediate scales, the noise level at ℓ ∈ [30, 100] is reduced by a factor of 2–3 in the map space. A pixel domain analysis of the polarized synchrotron spectral index ( β _s ) using the WMAP K band and the combined maps (mean and 16th/84th percentiles across the β _s map: $-{3.08}_{-0.20}^{+0.20}$ ) reveals a stronger preference for spatial variation (probability to exceed for a uniform β _s hypothesis smaller than 0.001) than the results obtained using WMAP K and Ka bands ( $-{3.08}_{-0.14}^{+0.14}$ ). The cross-power spectra of the combined maps follow the same trend as other low-frequency data, and validation through simulations indicates negligible bias introduced by the combination method (subpercent level in the power spectra). The products of this work are publicly available on LAMBDA ( https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/class/class_prod_table.html ).

Published in The Astrophysical Journal

ISSN: 1538-4357 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy: Astrophysics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords