The European low-frequency survey on the Simons Array

Mennella, Aniello; Arnold, Kam; Azzoni, Susanna; Baccigalupi, Carlo; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, Rita Belèn.; Barron, Darcy; Bersanelli, Marco; Casas, Francisco J.; Casey, Sean; de la Hoz, Elena; Franceschet, Cristian; Jones, Michael E.; Génova-Santos, Ricardo T.; Hoyland, R.; Lee, Adrian T.; Martinez-Gonzalez, Enrique; Montonati, Filippo; Rubiño-Martín, José-Alberto; Taylor, Angela; Vielva, Patricio
Referencia bibliográfica

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series

Fecha de publicación:
8
2024
Número de autores
21
Número de autores del IAC
3
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
In this paper we present the European Low Frequency Survey (ELFS), a project that will enable foregrounds-free measurements of the primordial B-mode polarization and a detection of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, to a level σ(r) = 0:001 by measuring the Galactic and extra-galactic emissions in the 5-120 GHz frequency window. Indeed, the main difficulty in measuring the B-mode polarization comes from the fact that many other processes in the Universe also emit polarized microwaves, which obscure the faint Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) signal. The first stage of this project is being carried out in synergy with the Simons Array (SA) collaboration, installing a 5.5-11GHz (X-band) coherent receiver at the focus of one of the three 3.5m SA telescopes in Atacama, Chile, followed by the installation of the QUIJOTE-MFI2 in the 10-20 GHz range. We designate this initial iteration of the ELFS program as ELFS-SA. The receivers are equipped with a fully digital back-end that will provide a frequency resolution of 1MHz across the band, allowing us to clean the scientific signal from unwanted radio frequency interference, particularly from low-Earth orbit satellite mega constellations. This paper reviews the scientific motivation for ELFS and its instrumental characteristics, and provides an update on the development of ELFS-SA.