Three Year Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis

By L. Page, Gary F. Hinshaw, E. Komatsu, M. Nolta, David N. Spergel, C. Bennett, C. Barnès, R. Bean, O. Dor�, J. Dunkley and 13 more. 2006

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The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has mapped the entire sky in five frequency bands between 23 and 94 GHz with polarization sensitive radiometers. We present three-year full-sky maps of the polarization and analyze them for foreground emission and cosmological implications. These observations open up a new window for understanding how the universe began and help set a foundation for future observations. WMAP observes significant levels of polarized foreground emission due to both Galactic synchrotron radiation and thermal dust emission. Synchrotron radiation is the dominant signal at l < 50 and ν . 40 GHz, while thermal dust emission is evident at 94 GHz. The least contaminated channel is at 61 GHz. We present a model of polarized foreground emission that captures the large angular scale characteristics of the microwave sky. After applying a Galactic mask that cuts 25.7% of the sky, we show that the high Galactic latitude rms polarized foreground emission, averaged over l = 4 − 6, ranges from ≈ 5 μK at 22 GHz to . 0.6 μK at 61 GHz. By comparison, the levels of intrinsic CMB polarization for a ΛCDM model with an optical depth of τ = 0.09 and assumed tensor to scalar ratio r = 0.3 are ≈ 0.3 μK for E-mode polarization and ≈ 0.03 μK for B-mode polarization. To analyze the maps for CMB polarization at l < 16, we subtract a model of the foreground emission. In the foreground corrected maps, we detect l(l+ 1)CEE l=<2−6>/2π = 0.086±0.029 (μK)2. This is interpreted as the result of rescattering of the CMB by free electrons released during reionization at zr = 10.9+2.7 −2.3 for a model with instantaneous reionization. By computing the likelihood of just the EE data as a function of τ we find τ = 0.10±0.03. When the same EE data are used in the full six parameter fit to all WMAP data (TT, TE, EE), we find τ = 0.09±0.03. We see no evidence for B-modes, limiting them to l(l+ 1)CBB l=<2−6>/2π = −0.04± 0.03 (μK)2. We perform a template fit to the E-mode and B-mode data with an approximate model for the tensor scalar ratio. We find that the limit from the polarization signals alone is r < 2.2 (95% CL) where r is evaluated at k = 0.002 Mpc−1. This corresponds to a limit on the cosmic density of gravitational waves of ΩGW h2 < 5×10−12. From the full WMAP analysis, we find r < 0.55 (95% CL) corresponding to a limit of ΩGW h2 < 1× 10−12 (95% CL). The limit on r is approaching the upper bound of predictions for some of the simplest models of inflation, r ∼ 0.3.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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Citations in the corpus

COrE (Cosmic Origins Explorer) A White Paper (2011, background): “The WMAP mission has provided first full-sky sensitive measurements of synchrotron-dominated sky emission polarization in the 20-90 GHz frequency range [175], providing also an estimate of the level of contamination by polarized galactic emission outside of the galactic plane, in regions useful for ”
Resolving the Formation of Protogalaxies. II. Central Gravitational Collapse (2007, background): “Finally, a reionization signature in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at z 10 (Page et al. 2007) further supports and constrains stellar and SMBH activity at high redshifts.”
Suppression of H2 Cooling in the Ultraviolet Background (2007, positive): “…fractions and star formation efficiencies, of high-redshift dwarf galaxy will require appropriate adjustments to match observations, such as the WMAP3 measurement of optical depth to electron scattering (Page et al. 2007) and Gunn-Peterson troughs at z 6 (Becker et al. 2001; Fan et al. 2002).”
Improved constraints on dark energy from Chandra X-ray observations of the largest relaxed galaxy clusters (2007, methodology): “Our analysis of CMB observations uses the threeyear WMAP temperature (TT) data for multipoles l < 1000 (Hinshaw et al. 2007; Spergel et al. 2007) and temperature-polarization (TE) data for l < 450 (Page et al. 2007).”
Inflation after WMAP3: confronting the slow-roll and exact power spectra with CMB data (2006, methodology): “ver, compared to other oscillatory patterns, the logarithmic shape is favoured. PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq, 98.70.Vc Inﬂation after WMAP3 2 1. Introduction The recent release of the three years WMAP data [1, 2, 3, 4] constitutes an important step for the theory of inﬂation. One now has at our disposal h”
POLARIZED FAR-INFRARED AND SUBMILLIMETER EMISSION FROM INTERSTELLAR DUST (2008, methodology): “The polarization of the large-scale submillimeter emission from dust in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way has now been measured by several experiments, including the Archeops balloon (Benôıt et al. 2004; Ponthieu et al. 2005) and the WMAP satellite (Page et al. 2007; Gold et al. 2008).”
SEVEN-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE (WMAP) OBSERVATIONS: POWER SPECTRA AND WMAP-DERIVED PARAMETERS (2010, methodology): “Temperature-Polarization (TE, TB) Cross Spectra The 7-year temperature-polarization cross power spectra were formed using the same methodology as the 5- year spectrum (Page et al. 2007; Nolta et al. 2009).”
Gravitino dark matter and cosmological constraints (2006, result): “olarization analysis of the three year WMAP data constrains the optical depth to τ = 0.088+0.028 −0.034 , which points to reionization at z = 10.9 +2.7 −2.3 in a model with instantaneous reionization [67]. These new results replace the ones from the analysis of the ﬁrst year WMAP data, in which τ = ”
Planck 2015 results. XI. CMB power spectra, likelihoods, and robustness of parameters (2015, methodology): “We start by reviewing the general CMB likelihood formalism for the analysis of temperature and polarization at low `, as described for instance by Tegmark & de Oliveira-Costa (2001), Page et al. (2007a), and in Like13.”