Abstract
Detecting the imprint of inflationary gravitational waves on the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is one of the main science cases for current and next-generation CMB experiments. In this work we explore some of the challenges that ground-based facilities will have to face in order to carry out this measurement in the presence of galactic foregrounds and correlated atmospheric noise. We present forecasts for stage-3 (S3) and planned stage-4 (S4) experiments based on the analysis of simulated sky maps using a map-based Bayesian foreground-cleaning method. Our results thus consistently propagate the uncertainties on foreground parameters such as spatially varying spectral indices, as well as the bias on the measured tensor-to-scalar ratio r caused by an incorrect modeling of the foregrounds. We find that S3 and S4-like experiments should be able to put constraints on r of the order σ(r)=(0.5-1.0)×10-2 and σ(r)=(0.5-1.0)×10-3 respectively, assuming instrumental systematic effects are under control. We further study deviations from the fiducial foreground model, finding that, while the effects of a second polarized dust component would be minimal on both S3 and S4, a 2% polarized anomalous dust emission component would be clearly detectable by stage-4 experiments.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 043504 |
Journal | Physical Review D |
Volume | 95 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 7 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)