We have analyzed the southern sky emission in linear polarization at 2.3 GHz as observed by the S-band Polarization All Sky Survey (S-PASS). Our purpose is to study the properties of the diffuse Galactic polarized synchrotron as a contaminant to B-mode observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. We studied the angular distribution of the S-PASS signal at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes by means of the polarization angular power spectra. The power spectra, computed in the multipole interval 20 ≤ ` ≤1000, show a decay of the spectral amplitude as a function of multipole for ` . 200, typical of the diffuse emission. At smaller angular scales, power spectra are dominated by the radio point source radiation. We find that, at low multipoles, spectra can be approximated by a power law CEE;BB ` /, with ' 3, and characterized by a B-To-E ratio of about 0.5. We measured the polarized synchrotron spectral energy distribution (SED) in harmonic space, by combining S-PASS power spectra with low frequency WMAP and Planck ones, and by fitting their frequency dependence in six multipole bins, in the range 20 ≤ ℓ ≤ 140. Results show that the recovered SED, in the frequency range 2.333 GHz, is compatible with a power law with β s =-3:22 ± 0:08, which appears to be constant over the considered multipole range and in the different Galactic cuts. Combining the S-PASS total polarized intensity maps with those coming from WMAP and Planck we derived a map of the synchrotron spectral index β s at angular resolution of 2° on about 30% of the sky. The recovered βs distribution peaks at the value around-3.2. It exibits an angular power spectrum which can be approximated with a power law C`ℓ ` with γ-2:6. We also measured a significant spatial correlation between synchrotron and thermal dust signals, as traced by the Planck 353 GHz channel. This correlation reaches about 40% on the larger angular scales, decaying considerably at the degree scales. Finally, we used the S-PASS maps to assess the polarized synchrotron contamination to CMB observations of the B-modes at higher frequencies. We divided the sky in small patches (with fsky ' 1%) and find that, at 90 GHz, the minimal contamination, in the cleanest regions of the sky, is at the level of an equivalent tensor-To-scalar ratio rsynch ≈10--3-. Moreover, by combining S-PASS data with Planck 353 GHz observations, we recover a map of the minimum level of total polarized foreground contamination to B-modes, finding that there is no region of the sky, at any frequency, where this contamination lies below equivalent tenor-To-scalar ratio rFG ' 10-3. This result confirms the importance of observing both high and low frequency foregrounds in CMB B-mode measurements.

S-PASS view of polarized Galactic synchrotron at 2.3 GHz as a contaminant to CMB observations / Krachmalnicoff, N.; Carretti, Ettore; Baccigalupi, C.; Bernardi, G.; Brown, S.; Gaensler, B. M.; Haverkorn, M.; Kesteven, M.; Perrotta, F.; Poppi, S.; Staveley-Smith, L.. - In: ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS. - ISSN 0004-6361. - 618:1 October(2018), pp. 1-18. [10.1051/0004-6361/201832768]

S-PASS view of polarized Galactic synchrotron at 2.3 GHz as a contaminant to CMB observations

Krachmalnicoff, N.;Carretti, Ettore;Baccigalupi, C.;Perrotta, F.;
2018-01-01

Abstract

We have analyzed the southern sky emission in linear polarization at 2.3 GHz as observed by the S-band Polarization All Sky Survey (S-PASS). Our purpose is to study the properties of the diffuse Galactic polarized synchrotron as a contaminant to B-mode observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. We studied the angular distribution of the S-PASS signal at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes by means of the polarization angular power spectra. The power spectra, computed in the multipole interval 20 ≤ ` ≤1000, show a decay of the spectral amplitude as a function of multipole for ` . 200, typical of the diffuse emission. At smaller angular scales, power spectra are dominated by the radio point source radiation. We find that, at low multipoles, spectra can be approximated by a power law CEE;BB ` /, with ' 3, and characterized by a B-To-E ratio of about 0.5. We measured the polarized synchrotron spectral energy distribution (SED) in harmonic space, by combining S-PASS power spectra with low frequency WMAP and Planck ones, and by fitting their frequency dependence in six multipole bins, in the range 20 ≤ ℓ ≤ 140. Results show that the recovered SED, in the frequency range 2.333 GHz, is compatible with a power law with β s =-3:22 ± 0:08, which appears to be constant over the considered multipole range and in the different Galactic cuts. Combining the S-PASS total polarized intensity maps with those coming from WMAP and Planck we derived a map of the synchrotron spectral index β s at angular resolution of 2° on about 30% of the sky. The recovered βs distribution peaks at the value around-3.2. It exibits an angular power spectrum which can be approximated with a power law C`ℓ ` with γ-2:6. We also measured a significant spatial correlation between synchrotron and thermal dust signals, as traced by the Planck 353 GHz channel. This correlation reaches about 40% on the larger angular scales, decaying considerably at the degree scales. Finally, we used the S-PASS maps to assess the polarized synchrotron contamination to CMB observations of the B-modes at higher frequencies. We divided the sky in small patches (with fsky ' 1%) and find that, at 90 GHz, the minimal contamination, in the cleanest regions of the sky, is at the level of an equivalent tensor-To-scalar ratio rsynch ≈10--3-. Moreover, by combining S-PASS data with Planck 353 GHz observations, we recover a map of the minimum level of total polarized foreground contamination to B-modes, finding that there is no region of the sky, at any frequency, where this contamination lies below equivalent tenor-To-scalar ratio rFG ' 10-3. This result confirms the importance of observing both high and low frequency foregrounds in CMB B-mode measurements.
2018
618
1 October
1
18
A166
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/10/aa32768-18/aa32768-18.html
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.01145.pdf
Krachmalnicoff, N.; Carretti, Ettore; Baccigalupi, C.; Bernardi, G.; Brown, S.; Gaensler, B. M.; Haverkorn, M.; Kesteven, M.; Perrotta, F.; Poppi, S.;...espandi
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11767/87719
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