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

    • Planck 2013 results. XXVIII. The Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources
      The Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS) is the catalogue of sources detected in the first 15 months of Planck operations, the “nominal” mission. It consists of nine single-frequency catalogues of compact sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, detected over the entire sky. The PCCS covers the frequency range 30–857 GHz with higher
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      182
    • Planck 2013 results. XXX. Cosmic infrared background measurements and implications for star formation
      We present new measurements of cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies using Planck. Combining HFI data with IRAS, the angular auto- and cross-frequency power spectrum is measured from 143 to 3000 GHz, and the auto-bispectrum from 217 to 545 GHz. The total areas used to compute the CIB power spectrum and bispectrum are about 2240 and 4400
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      254
    • Comparison of Prestellar Core Elongations and Large-scale Molecular Cloud Structures in the Lupus I Region
      Turbulence and magnetic fields are expected to be important for regulating molecular cloud formation and evolution. However, their effects on sub-parsec to 100 parsec scales, leading to the formation of starless cores, are not well understood. We investigate the prestellar core structure morphologies obtained from analysis of the Herschel-SPIRE 350
      Poidevin, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2014
      Citations
      10
    • PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): an extended white paper
      PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in May 2013 as a large-class mission for investigating within the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision program a set of important scientific questions that require high resolution, high sensitivity, full-sky observations of the sky emission at wavelengths ranging from
      André, P. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2014
      Citations
      205
    • Ft-Ir Spectra of Fullerenes C76, C78 and C84 At Temperatures Comprised Between -180°C and +250°C
      The FT-IR spectra of C76, C78 and C84 fullerenes were recorded in the temperature range comprised between -180°C and +250°C. The purpose of the work is to provide reference infrared spectra for searching higher fullerene homologues in space after the recent and successful discovery of C60 and C70 in a series of different astrophysical objects.
      Iglesias-Groth, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2013
    • Planck intermediate results. XII: Diffuse Galactic components in the Gould Belt system
      We perform an analysis of the diffuse low-frequency Galactic components in the southern part of the Gould Belt system (130° ≤ l ≤ 230° and -50° ≤ b ≤ -10°). Strong ultra-violet flux coming from the Gould Belt super-association is responsible for bright diffuse foregrounds that we observe from our position inside the system and that can help us
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      9
      2013
      Citations
      20
    • A Search for near Infrared Bands of the Fullerene Cation C_{60}^+ in the Protoplanetary Nebula IRAS 01005+7910
      IRAS 01005+7910 is a carbon-rich protoplanetary nebula with a recently reported detection of mid-IR vibrational transitions of the fullerene C60 by Zhang and Kwok. We present new high spectral resolution (R ~ 57, 000) observations of this object obtained at the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, showing the presence of two absorption bands at 9577
      Iglesias-Groth, S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      10
      2013
      Citations
      17
    • Planck intermediate results. IX. Detection of the Galactic haze with Planck
      Using precise full-sky observations from Planck, and applying several methods of component separation, we identify and characterise the emission from the Galactic "haze" at microwave wavelengths. The haze is a distinct component of diffuse Galactic emission, roughly centered on the Galactic centre, and extends to | b | ~ 35-50° in Galactic latitude
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2013
      Citations
      146
    • Observations of the Polarisation of the Anomalous Microwave Emission: A Review
      The observational status of the polarisation of the anomalous microwave emission (AME) is reviewed, both for individual compact Galactic regions as well as for the large-scale Galactic emission. There are six Galactic regions with existing polarisation constraints in the relevant range of 10?40?GHz: four dust clouds (Perseus, ? Ophiuchi, LDN1622
      Rubiño-Martín, J. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      0
      2012
      Citations
      35
    • Planck intermediate results. VI. The dynamical structure of PLCKG214.6+37.0, a Planck discovered triple system of galaxy clusters
      The survey of galaxy clusters performed by Planck through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect has already discovered many interesting objects, thanks to its full sky coverage. One of the SZ candidates detected inthe early months of the mission near to the signal-to-noise threshold, PLCKG214.6+37.0, was later revealed by XMM-Newton to be a triple system of
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      15
    • Planck intermediate results. II. Comparison of Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements from Planck and from the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager for 11 galaxy clusters
      A comparison is presented of Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements for 11 galaxy clusters as obtained by Planck and by the ground-based interferometer, the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager. Assuming a universal spherically-symmetric Generalised Navarro, Frenk and White (GNFW) model for the cluster gas pressure profile, we jointly constrain the integrated
      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      24
    • Planck intermediate results. III. The relation between galaxy cluster mass and Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal
      We examine the relation between the galaxy cluster mass M and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect signal DA2 Y500 for a sample of 19 objects for which weak lensing (WL) mass measurements obtained from Subaru Telescope data are available in the literature. Hydrostatic X-ray masses are derived from XMM-Newton archive data, and the SZ effect signal is
      Mandolesi, N. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      75
    • Planck intermediate results. V. Pressure profiles of galaxy clusters from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
      Taking advantage of the all-sky coverage and broadfrequency range of the Planck satellite, we study the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) and pressure profiles of 62 nearby massive clusters detected at high significance in the 14-month nominal survey. Careful reconstruction of the SZ signal indicates that most clusters are individually detected at least out
      Delabrouille, J. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      303
    • Planck intermediate results. VII. Statistical properties of infrared and radio extragalactic sources from the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue at frequencies between 100 and 857 GHz
      We make use of the Planck all-sky survey to derive number counts and spectral indices of extragalactic sources - infrared and radio sources - from the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) at 100 to 857 GHz (3 mm to 350 μm). Three zones (deep, medium and shallow) of approximately homogeneous coverage are used to permit a clean and
      Davis, R. J. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      56
    • Planck intermediate results. VIII. Filaments between interacting clusters
      Context. About half of the baryons of the Universe are expected to be in the form of filaments of hot and low-density intergalactic medium. Most of these baryons remain undetected even by the most advanced X-ray observatories, which are limited in sensitivity to the diffuse low-density medium. Aims: The Planck satellite has provided hundreds of
      Zacchei, A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2013
      Citations
      101
    • Optical spectroscopy of V1123 Tauri and its visual companion
      We present long-slit intermediate resolution spectroscopy of the visual binary V1123. We confirm that component A is a W UMa eclipsing star with spectral type G0V, while component B is a K0V. We infer a distance to the system of 125 pc, and then a projected separation between both components of 520 AU. The difference in radial velocities of
      Gutiérrez, Carlos M.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2009
      Citations
      2
    • RICO: A New Approach for Fast and Accurate Representation of the Cosmological Recombination History
      We present RICO, a code designed to compute the ionization fraction of the universe during the epoch of hydrogen and helium recombination with an unprecedented combination of speed and accuracy. This is accomplished by training the machine learning code PICO on the calculations of a multilevel cosmological recombination code which self-consistently
      Fendt, W. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2009
      Citations
      44
    • Magnetic Fields and the Outer Rotation Curve of M31
      Recent observations of the rotation curve of M31 show a rise of the outer part that cannot be understood in terms of standard dark matter models or perturbations of the galactic disk by M31's satellites. Here, we propose an explanation of this dynamical feature based on the influence of the magnetic field within the thin disk. We have considered
      Ruiz-Granados, B. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2010
      Citations
      25
    • Lines in the cosmic microwave background spectrum from the epoch of cosmological helium recombination
      The main goal of this work is to calculate the contributions of bound-bound transitions of helium to the cosmological recombination spectrum. We show that helium in the early Universe causes unique features to appear in the total cosmological recombination spectrum. These may provide a unique observational possibility to determine the relative
      Rubiño-Martín, J. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2008
      Citations
      92
    • Estimating the impact of recombination uncertainties on the cosmological parameter constraints from cosmic microwave background experiments
      We use our most recent training set for the RICO code to estimate the impact of recombination uncertainties on the posterior probability distributions which will be obtained from future cosmic microwave background experiments, and in particular the Planck satellite. Using a Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) analysis to sample the posterior
      Rubiño-Martín, J. A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2010
      Citations
      65

    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