A Measurement of Atmospheric Circular Polarization with POLARBEAR

Takuro Fujino; Satoru Takakura; Shahed Shayan Arani; Darcy Barron; Carlo Baccigalupi; Yuji Chinone; Josquin Errard; Giulio Fabbian; Chang Feng; Nils W. Halverson; Masaya Hasegawa; Masashi Hazumi; Oliver Jeong; Daisuke Kaneko; Brian Keating; Akito Kusaka; Adrian Lee; Tomotake Matsumura; Lucio Piccirillo; Christian L. Reichardt; Kana Sakaguri; Praween Siritanasak; Kyohei Yamada

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ada89b

The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2025)

A Measurement of Atmospheric Circular Polarization with POLARBEAR

Takuro Fujino,
Satoru Takakura,
Shahed Shayan Arani,
Darcy Barron,
Carlo Baccigalupi,
Yuji Chinone,
Josquin Errard,
Giulio Fabbian,
Chang Feng,
Nils W. Halverson,
Masaya Hasegawa,
Masashi Hazumi,
Oliver Jeong,
Daisuke Kaneko,
Brian Keating,
Akito Kusaka,
Adrian Lee,
Tomotake Matsumura,
Lucio Piccirillo,
Christian L. Reichardt,
Kana Sakaguri,
Praween Siritanasak,
Kyohei Yamada

Affiliations

Takuro Fujino: ORCiD; Graduate School of Engineering Science & Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University , Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan ; [email protected]
Satoru Takakura: ORCiD; International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan ; [email protected]; Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Shahed Shayan Arani: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Darcy Barron: ORCiD; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico , Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Carlo Baccigalupi: ORCiD; The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) , Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy; The National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) , Via Valerio 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
Yuji Chinone: ORCiD; International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
Josquin Errard: ORCiD; Université Paris Cité , CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, F-75013 Paris, France
Giulio Fabbian: ORCiD; Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK; Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
Chang Feng: ORCiD; Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China; School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China
Nils W. Halverson: ORCiD; Department of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder , UCB391, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Masaya Hasegawa: ORCiD; International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan ; [email protected]; Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
Masashi Hazumi: ORCiD; International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan; Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) , Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan; School of High Energy Accelerator Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies , SOKENDAI, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan
Oliver Jeong: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Daisuke Kaneko: ORCiD; International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) , Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan ; [email protected]
Brian Keating: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Akito Kusaka: ORCiD; Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan; Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Research Center for the Early Universe, School of Science, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Adrian Lee: ORCiD; Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Tomotake Matsumura: ORCiD; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo , Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
Lucio Piccirillo: ORCiD; Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester , Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Christian L. Reichardt: ORCiD; School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Kana Sakaguri: ORCiD; Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Praween Siritanasak: ORCiD; National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand , Chiangmai, 50180, Thailand
Kyohei Yamada: ORCiD; Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo , Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada89b
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 981, no. 1
p. 15

Abstract

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At millimeter wavelengths, the atmospheric emission is circularly polarized owing to the Zeeman splitting of molecular oxygen by the Earth's magnetic field. We report a measurement of the signal in the 150 GHz band using 3 yr of observational data with the Polarbear project. Nonidealities of a continuously rotating half-wave plate (HWP) partially convert circularly polarized light to linearly polarized light. While Polarbear detectors are sensitive to linear polarization, this effect makes them sensitive to circular polarization. Although this was not the intended use, we utilized this conversion to measure circular polarization. We reconstruct the azimuthal gradient of the circular polarization signal and measure its dependency from the scanning direction and the detector bandpass. We compare the signal with a simulation based on atmospheric emission theory, the detector bandpass, and the HWP leakage spectrum model. We find the ratio of the observed azimuthal slope to the simulated slope is 0.92 ± 0.01(stat) ± 0.07(sys). This ratio corresponds to a brightness temperature of 3.8 mK at the effective band center of 121.8 GHz and bandwidth of 3.5 GHz estimated from representative detector bandpass and the spectrum of Zeeman emission. This result validates our understanding of the instrument and reinforces the feasibility of measuring the circular polarization using the imperfection of continuously rotating HWP. Continuously rotating HWP is popular in ongoing and future cosmic microwave background experiments to modulate the polarized signal. This work shows a method for signal extraction and leakage subtraction that can help measure circular polarization in such experiments.

Cosmic microwave background radiation

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

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