Measurements of B -mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background from 500 square degrees of SPTpol data

Sayre, J. T., Reichardt, C. L., Henning, J. W., Ade, P. A. R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-0401, Anderson, A. J., Austermann, J. E., Avva, J. S., Beall, J. A., Bender, A. N., Benson, B. A., Bianchini, F., Bleem, L. E., Carlstrom, J. E., Chang, C. L., Chaubal, P., Chiang, H. C., Citron, R., Corbett Moran, C., Crawford, T. M., Crites, A. T., de Haan, T., Dobbs, M. A., Everett, W., Gallicchio, J., George, E. M., Gilbert, A., Gupta, N., Halverson, N. W., Harrington, N., Hilton, G. C., Holder, G. P., Holzapfel, W. L., Hrubes, J. D., Huang, N., Hubmayr, J., Irwin, K. D., Knox, L., Lee, A. T., Li, D., Lowitz, A., McMahon, J. J., Meyer, S. S., Mocanu, L. M., Montgomery, J., Nadolski, A., Natoli, T., Nibarger, J. P., Noble, G., Novosad, V., Padin, S., Patil, S., Pryke, C., Ruhl, J. E., Saliwanchik, B. R., Schaffer, K. K., Sievers, C., Smecher, G., Stark, A. A., Tucker, C., Vanderlinde, K., Veach, T., Vieira, J. D., Wang, G., Whitehorn, N., Wu, W. L. K. and Yefremenko, V. 2020. Measurements of B -mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background from 500 square degrees of SPTpol data. Physical Review D 101 (12) , 122003. 10.1103/PhysRevD.101.122003

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Abstract

We report a B-mode power spectrum measurement from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropy observations made using the SPTpol instrument on the South Pole Telescope. This work uses 500  deg2 of SPTpol data, a five-fold increase over the last SPTpol B-mode release. As a result, the bandpower uncertainties have been reduced by more than a factor of two, and the measurement extends to lower multipoles: 52<ℓ<2301. Data from both 95 and 150 GHz are used, allowing for three cross-spectra: 95  GHz × 95  GHz, 95  GHz × 150  GHz, and 150  GHz × 150  GHz. B-mode power is detected at very high significance; we find P(BB<0)=5.8×10−71, corresponding to a 18.1σ detection of power. With a prior on the galactic dust from Planck, WMAP and BICEP2/Keck observations, the SPTpol B-mode data can be used to set an upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r<0.44 at 95% confidence (the expected 1σ constraint on r given the measurement uncertainties is 0.22). We find the measured B-mode power is consistent with the Planck best-fit ΛCDM model predictions. Scaling the predicted lensing B-mode power in this model by a factor Alens, the data prefer Alens=1.17±0.13. These data are currently the most precise measurements of B-mode power at ℓ>320.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	American Physical Society
ISSN:	2470-0010
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 July 2020
Date of Acceptance:	3 June 2020
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 05:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/133683

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