Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background

    General
    Description

    The general goal of this project is to determine and characterize the spatial and spectral variations in the temperature and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background in angular scales from several arcminutes to several degrees. The primordial matter density fluctuations which originated the structure in the matter distribution of the present Universe, left imprinted inhomogeneities in the CMB temperature distribution, that are mathematically encoded in the so-called angular power spectrum. Initially, pioneering experiments like the COBE satellite (whose results deserved the Nobel Prize on Physics 2006) or the Tenerife CMB experiment demonstrated in the 90s that the level of anisotropy was about one part in a hundred thousands at angular scales of several degrees. Obtaining CMB maps at various frequencies with sufficient sensitivity to detect structures at this level is of fundamental importance to extract information on the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations, to prove the existence of an inflationary period in the Early Universe and to establish the ultimate nature of the dark matter and dark energy. Recently, the WMAP satellite obtained CMB maps with unprecedented sensitivity that allowed to set restrictions on a large number of cosmological parameters.

    The focus of this project is to undertake measurements at gradually higher angular resolutions and sensitivities, by using different experiments that have been operative from the Teide Observatory, like the Tenerife experiment, the IAC-Bartol experiment or the JBO-IAC interferometer. More recently, the Very Small Array interferometer performed observations between 1999 and 2008. At that time the COSMOSOMAS experiment was also operative, its goal having been not only the characterization of the primary CMB anisotropies but also the study and characterization of the Galactic foreground contamination. In more recent years the activity in this project has focused in the scientific exploitation of data from the Planck satellite, and in the development, operation and exploitation of the QUIJOTE experiment. Now that the Planck mission has been completed and finished, the activity is focused in the scientific exploitation of QUIJOTE, in the development of new instrumentation for QUIJOTE, and in in the development of new experiments that are being deployed or that will be deployed at the Teide Observatory: GroundBRID, STRIP, KISS and TMS.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    Collaborators
    Dr.
    Fernando Atrio Barandela
    Dr.
    Enrique Martínez González
    Dr.
    Carlos Hernández Monteagudo
    1. 6-7 june: XV QUIJOTE Scientific Meeting (IFCA, Santander)
    2. July: publication of the final results (12 articles) and data from the Planck satellite.
    3. 15-19 october: "CMB foregrounds for B-mode studies" conference, organised within the Radioforegrounds proyect, IV AME workshop, and XVI QUIJOTE Scientific Meeting (all these eventes were celebrated at the IAC)
    4. October: installation of the dome of the GroundBIRD experiment, at the Teide Observatory.
    5. December: aceptation of the third QUIJOTE scientific article (Poidevin et al. 2019)

    Related publications

    • The LSPE-Strip beams
      In this paper we describe the design and characterization of the optical system of LSPE/Strip, a coherent polarimeter array that will observe the microwave sky from the Teide Observatory in Tenerife in two frequency bands centred at 43 and 95 GHz through a dual-reflector crossed-Dragone telescope of 1.5 m aperture. In general, optical systems
      Realini, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2022
      Citations
      1
    • In-flight polarization angle calibration for LiteBIRD: blind challenge and cosmological implications
      We present a demonstration of the in-flight polarization angle calibration for the JAXA/ISAS second strategic large class mission, LiteBIRD, and estimate its impact on the measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio parameter, r, using simulated data. We generate a set of simulated sky maps with CMB and polarized foreground emission, and inject
      Krachmalnicoff, N. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2022
      Citations
      19
    • Accurate sky signal reconstruction for ground-based spectroscopy with kinetic inductance detectors
      Context. Wide-field spectrometers are needed to deal with current astrophysical challenges that require multiband observations at millimeter wavelengths. An example of these is the KIDs Interferometer Spectrum Survey (KISS), which uses two arrays of kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) coupled to a Martin-Puplett interferometer (MPI). KISS has a
      Fasano, A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2021
      Citations
      5
    • Revisiting the Distance to Radio Loops I and IV Using Gaia and Radio/Optical Polarization Data
      Galactic synchrotron emission exhibits large angular scale features known as radio spurs and loops. Determining the physical size of these structures is important for understanding the local interstellar structure and for modeling the Galactic magnetic field. However, the distance to these structures is either under debate or entirely unknown. We
      Panopoulou, G. V. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2021
      Citations
      27
    • Microwave spectro-polarimetry of matter and radiation across space and time
      This paper discusses the science case for a sensitive spectro-polarimetric survey of the microwave sky. Such a survey would provide a tomographic and dynamic census of the three-dimensional distribution of hot gas, velocity flows, early metals, dust, and mass distribution in the entire Hubble volume, exploit CMB temperature and polarisation
      Delabrouille, Jacques et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2021
      Citations
      16
    • A space mission to map the entire observable universe using the CMB as a backlight
      This Science White Paper, prepared in response to the ESA Voyage 2050 call for long-term mission planning, aims to describe the various science possibilities that can be realized with an L-class space observatory that is dedicated to the study of the interactions of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons with the cosmic web. Our aim is
      Bartlett, James G. et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2021
      Citations
      22
    • New horizons in cosmology with spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background
      This Voyage 2050 paper highlights the unique science opportunities using spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). CMB spectral distortions probe many processes throughout the history of the Universe, delivering novel information that complements past, present and future efforts with CMB anisotropy and large-scale structure
      Silk, J. et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2021
      Citations
      150
    • The PICASSO map-making code: application to a simulation of the QUIJOTE northern sky survey
      Map-making is an important step for the data analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. It consists of converting the data, which are typically a long, complex, and noisy collection of measurements, into a map, which is an image of the observed sky. We present in this paper a new map-making code named PICASSO (Polarization and
      Guidi, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2021
      Citations
      7
    • Study of the thermal and nonthermal emission components in M 31: the Sardinia Radio Telescope view at 6.6 GHz
      Context. The Andromeda galaxy is the best-known large galaxy besides our own Milky Way. Several images and studies exist at all wavelengths from radio to hard X-ray. Nevertheless, only a few observations are available in the microwave range where its average radio emission reaches the minimum. Aims: In this paper, we want to study the radio
      Fatigoni, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2021
      Citations
      8
    • The large scale polarization explorer (LSPE) for CMB measurements: performance forecast
      The measurement of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is one of the current frontiers in cosmology. In particular, the detection of the primordial divergence-free component of the polarization field, the B-mode, could reveal the presence of gravitational waves in the early Universe. The detection of such a component
      Addamo, G. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2021
      Citations
      44
    • A Forecast of the Sensitivity on the Measurement of the Optical Depth to Reionization with the GroundBIRD Experiment
      We compute the expected sensitivity on measurements of optical depth to reionization for a ground-based experiment at Teide Observatory. We simulate polarized partial sky maps for the GroundBIRD experiment at the frequencies 145 and 220 GHz. We perform fits for the simulated maps with our pixel-based likelihood to extract the optical depth to
      Lee, K. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2021
      Citations
      5
    • Cosmological parameter forecasts by a joint 2D tomographic approach to CMB and galaxy clustering
      The cross-correlation between the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fields and matter tracers carries important cosmological information. In this paper, we forecast by a signal-to-noise ratio analysis the information contained in the cross-correlation of the CMB anisotropy fields with source counts for future cosmological observations and its
      Bermejo-Climent, José Ramón et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2021
      Citations
      12
    • Detection of spectral variations of Anomalous Microwave Emission with QUIJOTE and C-BASS
      Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) is a significant component of Galactic diffuse emission in the frequency range 10- $60\, \mathrm{GHz}$ and a new window into the properties of sub-nanometre-sized grains in the interstellar medium. We investigate the morphology of AME in the ≍10 ○ diameter λ Orionis ring by combining intensity data from the
      Cepeda-Arroita, R. et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2021
      Citations
      22
    • 28-40 GHz variability and polarimetry of bright compact sources in the QUIJOTE cosmological fields
      We observed 51 sources in the Q-U-I JOint TEnerife (QUIJOTE) cosmological fields that were brighter than 1 Jy at 30 GHz in the Planck Point Source Catalogue (version 1), with the Very Large Array at 28-40 GHz, in order to characterize their high-radio-frequency variability and polarization properties. We find a roughly lognormal distribution of
      Perrott, Yvette C. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2021
      Citations
      1
    • Fundamental physics with ESPRESSO: Towards an accurate wavelength calibration for a precision test of the fine-structure constant
      Observations of metal absorption systems in the spectra of distant quasars allow one to constrain a possible variation of the fine-structure constant throughout the history of the Universe. Such a test poses utmost demands on the wavelength accuracy and previous studies were limited by systematics in the spectrograph wavelength calibration. A
      Schmidt, Tobias M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2021
      Citations
      28
    • The Establishment of the Standard Cosmological Model Through Observations
      Over the last decades, observations with increasing quality have revolutionized our understanding of the general properties of the Universe. Questions posed for millenia by mankind about the origin, evolution and structure of the cosmos have found an answer. This has been possible mainly thanks to observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, of
      Génova-Santos, Ricardo Tanausú

      Advertised on:

      6
      2020
      Citations
      2
    • Progress Report on the Large-Scale Polarization Explorer
      The large-scale polarization explorer (LSPE) is a cosmology program for the measurement of large-scale curl-like features (B-modes) in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Its goal is to constrain the background of inflationary gravity waves traveling through the universe at the time of matter-radiation decoupling. The two
      Lamagna, L. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2020
      Citations
      13
    • Updated Design of the CMB Polarization Experiment Satellite LiteBIRD
      Recent developments of transition-edge sensors (TESs), based on extensive experience in ground-based experiments, have been making the sensor techniques mature enough for their application on future satellite cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments. LiteBIRD is in the most advanced phase among such future satellites, targeting
      Sugai, H. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2020
      Citations
      73
    • Planck intermediate results. LVI. Detection of the CMB dipole through modulation of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect: Eppur si muove II
      The largest temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the dipole, which has been measured with increasing accuracy for more than three decades, particularly with the Planck satellite. The simplest interpretation of the dipole is that it is due to our motion with respect to the rest frame of the CMB. Since current CMB
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2020
      Citations
      23
    • Planck intermediate results. LVII. Joint Planck LFI and HFI data processing
      We present the NPIPE processing pipeline, which produces calibrated frequency maps in temperature and polarization from data from the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and High Frequency Instrument (HFI) using high-performance computers. NPIPE represents a natural evolution of previous Planck analysis efforts, and combines some of the most
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2020
      Citations
      171

    Related talks

    No related talks were found.

    Related conferences

    • XIX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics "The Cosmic Microwave | Background: from quantum fluctuations to the present Universe"
      Tenerife, Canary Islands
      Spain
      Date
      -
      Past
    Related projects
    Parte del equipo del IAC con el sistema de desarrollo del software de vuelo
    Herschel y Planck
    IAC participation in the HERSCHEL AND PLANCK SURVEYOR space missions. Since 1996 the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has been a contributor to the concept and development processes for the scientific payload of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory and Planck Surveyor missions.
    Jorge
    Casares Velázquez
    Ismael
    Pérez Fournon
    Rafael
    Rebolo López
    COSMOSOMAS
    COSMOSOMAS
    The COSMOSOMAS experiment was running for several years at the Observatorio del Teide, measuring fossil radiation of the universe arriving to the Earth in the form of microwaves.
    Rafael
    Rebolo López
    Polarímetro CMB instalado en Izaña
    Polarímetro CMB
    A Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimeter
    Rafael
    Rebolo López
    VSA Extension en el observatorio de Izaña
    VSA Extension
    Very Small Array Extension
    Rafael
    Rebolo López