arXiv subjects

C. Franceschet

Publications and source records attributed to C. Franceschet.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

From BeyondPlanck to Cosmoglobe: Preliminary $\mathit{WMAP}$ $\mathit Q$-band analysis

We present the first application of the Cosmoglobe analysis framework by analyzing 9-year $\mathit{WMAP}$ time-ordered observations using similar machinery as BeyondPlanck utilizes for $\mathit{Planck}$ LFI. We analyze only the $\mathit Q$-band (41 GHz) data and report on the low-level analysis process from uncalibrated time-ordered data to calibrated maps. Most of the existing BeyondPlanck pipeline may be reused for $\mathit{WMAP}$ analysis with minimal changes to the existing codebase. The main modification is the implementation of the same preconditioned biconjugate gradient mapmaker used by the $\mathit{WMAP}$ team. Producing a single $\mathit{WMAP}$ $\mathit Q$1-band sample requires 22 CPU-hrs, which is slightly more than the cost of a $\mathit{Planck}$ 44 GHz sample of 17 CPU-hrs; this demonstrates that full end-to-end Bayesian processing of the $\mathit{WMAP}$ data is computationally feasible. In general, our recovered maps are very similar to the maps released by the $\mathit{WMAP}$ team, although with two notable differences. In temperature we find a $\sim2\,\mathrm{μK}$ quadrupole difference that most likely is caused by different gain modeling, while in polarization we find a distinct $2.5\,\mathrm{μK}$ signal that has been previously called poorly-measured modes by the $\mathit{WMAP}$ team. In the Cosmoglobe processing, this pattern arises from temperature-to-polarization leakage from the coupling between the CMB Solar dipole, transmission imbalance, and sidelobes. No traces of this pattern are found in either the frequency map or TOD residual map, suggesting that the current processing has succeeded in modelling these poorly measured modes within the assumed parametric model by using $\mathit{Planck}$ information to break the sky-synchronous degeneracies inherent in the $\mathit{WMAP}$ scanning strategy.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck XII. Cosmological parameter constraints with end-to-end error propagation

We present cosmological parameter constraints as estimated using the Bayesian BeyondPlanck (BP) analysis framework. This method supports seamless end-to-end error propagation from raw time-ordered data to final cosmological parameters. As a first demonstration of the method, we analyze time-ordered Planck LFI observations, combined with selected external data (WMAP 33-61GHz, Planck HFI DR4 353 and 857GHz, and Haslam 408MHz) in the form of pixelized maps which are used to break critical astrophysical degeneracies. Overall, all results are generally in good agreement with previously reported values from Planck 2018 and WMAP, with the largest relative difference for any parameter of about 1 sigma when considering only temperature multipoles between 29<l<601. In cases where there are differences, we note that the BP results are generally slightly closer to the high-l HFI-dominated Planck 2018 results than previous analyses, suggesting slightly less tension between low and high multipoles. Using low-l polarization information from LFI and WMAP, we find a best-fit value of tau=0.066 +/- 0.013, which is higher than the low value of tau=0.051 +/- 0.006 derived from Planck 2018 and slightly lower than the value of 0.069 +/- 0.011 derived from joint analysis of official LFI and WMAP products. Most importantly, however, we find that the uncertainty derived in the BP processing is about 30% larger than when analyzing the official products, after taking into account the different sky coverage. We argue that this is due to marginalizing over a more complete model of instrumental and astrophysical parameters, and this results in both more reliable and more rigorously defined uncertainties. We find that about 2000 Monte Carlo samples are required to achieve robust convergence for low-resolution CMB covariance matrix with 225 independent modes.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck VII. Bayesian estimation of gain and absolute calibration for CMB experiments

We present a Bayesian calibration algorithm for CMB observations as implemented within the global end-to-end BeyondPlanck (BP) framework, and apply this to the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) data. Following the most recent Planck analysis, we decompose the full time-dependent gain into a sum of three orthogonal components: One absolute calibration term, common to all detectors; one time-independent term that can vary between detectors; and one time-dependent component that is allowed to vary between one-hour pointing periods. Each term is then sampled conditionally on all other parameters in the global signal model through Gibbs sampling. The absolute calibration is sampled using only the orbital dipole as a reference source, while the two relative gain components are sampled using the full sky signal, including the orbital and Solar CMB dipoles, CMB fluctuations, and foreground contributions. We discuss various aspects of the data that influence gain estimation, including the dipole/polarization quadrupole degeneracy and anomalous jumps in the instrumental gain. Comparing our solution to previous pipelines, we find good agreement in general, with relative deviations of -0.67% (-0.84%) for 30 GHz, 0.12% (-0.04%) for 44 GHz and -0.03% (-0.64%) for 70 GHz, compared to Planck DR4 (Planck 2018). The deviations we find are within expected error bounds, and we attribute them to differences in data usage and general approach between the pipelines. In particular, the BP calibration is performed globally, resulting in better inter-frequency consistency. Additionally, WMAP observations are used actively in the BP analysis, which breaks degeneracies in the Planck data set and results in better agreement with WMAP. Although our presentation and algorithm are currently oriented toward LFI processing, the procedure is fully generalizable to other experiments.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck XVI. Limits on Large-Scale Polarized Anomalous Microwave Emission from Planck LFI and WMAP

We constrain the level of polarized anomalous microwave emission (AME) on large angular scales using $\textit{Planck}$ LFI and $\textit{WMAP}$ polarization data within a Bayesian CMB analysis framework. We model synchrotron emission with a power-law spectral energy distribution, and the sum of AME and thermal dust emission through linear regression with the $\textit{Planck}$ HFI 353 GHz data. This template-based dust emission model allows us to constrain the level of polarized AME while making minimal assumptions on its frequency dependence. We neglect cosmic microwave background fluctuations, but show through simulations that these have a minor impact on the results. We find that the resulting AME polarization fraction confidence limit is sensitive to the polarized synchrotron spectral index prior, and for priors steeper than $β_{\mathrm{s}} = -3.1\pm0.1$ we find an upper limit of $p_{\mathrm{AME}}^{\rm max}\lesssim 0.6\,\%$ ($95\,\%$ confidence). In contrast, for $β_{\mathrm{s}}=-3.0\pm0.1$, we find a nominal detection of $p_{\mathrm{AME}}=2.5\pm1.0\,\%$ ($95\,\%$ confidence). These data are thus not strong enough to simultaneously and robustly constrain both polarized synchrotron emission and AME, and our main result is therefore a constraint on the AME polarization fraction explicitly as a function of $β_\mathrm{s}$. Combining the current $\textit{Planck}$ and $\textit{WMAP}$ observations with measurements from high-sensitivity low-frequency experiments such as C-BASS and QUIJOTE will be critical to improve these limits further.

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arXiv2022

Polarization angle requirements for CMB B-mode experiments. Application to the LiteBIRD satellite

A methodology to provide the polarization angle requirements for different sets of detectors, at a given frequency of a CMB polarization experiment, is presented. The uncertainties in the polarization angle of each detector set are related to a given bias on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ parameter. The approach is grounded in using a linear combination of the detector sets to obtain the CMB polarization signal. In addition, assuming that the uncertainties on the polarization angle are in the small angle limit (lower than a few degrees), it is possible to derive analytic expressions to establish the requirements. The methodology also accounts for possible correlations among detectors, that may originate from the optics, wafers, etc. The approach is applied to the LiteBIRD space mission. We show that, for the most restrictive case (i.e., full correlation of the polarization angle systematics among detector sets), the requirements on the polarization angle uncertainties are of around 1 arcmin at the most sensitive frequency bands (i.e., $\approx 150$ GHz) and of few tens of arcmin at the lowest (i.e., $\approx 40$ GHz) and highest (i.e., $\approx 400$ GHz) observational bands. Conversely, for the least restrictive case (i.e., no correlation of the polarization angle systematics among detector sets), the requirements are $\approx 5$ times less restrictive than for the previous scenario. At the global and the telescope levels, polarization angle knowledge of a few arcmins is sufficient for correlated global systematic errors and can be relaxed by a factor of two for fully uncorrelated errors in detector polarization angle. The reported uncertainty levels are needed in order to have the bias on $r$ due to systematics below the limit established by the LiteBIRD collaboration.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck V. Minimal ADC Corrections for Planck LFI

We describe the correction procedure for Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) differential non-linearities (DNL) adopted in the Bayesian end-to-end BeyondPlanck analysis framework. This method is nearly identical to that developed for the official LFI Data Processing Center (DPC) analysis, and relies on the binned rms noise profile of each detector data stream. However, rather than building the correction profile directly from the raw rms profile, we first fit a Gaussian to each significant ADC-induced rms decrement, and then derive the corresponding correction model from this smooth model. The main advange of this approach is that only samples which are significantly affected by ADC DNLs are corrected. The new corrections are only applied to data for which there is a clear detection of the non-linearities, and for which they perform at least comparably with the DPC corrections. Out of a total of 88 LFI data streams (sky and reference load for each of the 44 detectors) we apply the new minimal ADC corrections in 25 cases, and maintain the DPC corrections in 8 cases. All these correctsion are applited to 44 or 70 GHz channels, while, as in previous analyses, none of the 30 GHz ADCs show significant evidence of non-linearity. By comparing the BeyondPlanck and DPC ADC correction methods, we estimate that the residual ADC uncertainty is about two orders of magnitude below the total noise of both the 44 and 70 GHz channels, and their impact on current cosmological parameter estimation is small. However, we also show that non-idealities in the ADC corrections can generate sharp stripes in the final frequency maps, and these could be important for future joint analyses with HFI, WMAP, or other datasets. We therefore conclude that, although the existing corrections are adequate for LFI-based cosmological parameter analysis, further work on LFI ADC corrections is still warranted.

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arXiv2022

QUBIC VII: The feedhorn-switch system of the technological demonstrator

We present the design, manufacturing and performance of the horn-switch system developed for the technological demonstrator of QUBIC (the $Q$\&$U$ Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology). This system is constituted of 64 back-to-back dual-band (150\,GHz and 220\,GHz) corrugated feed-horns interspersed with mechanical switches used to select desired baselines during the instrument self-calibration. We manufactured the horns in aluminum platelets milled by photo-chemical etching and mechanically tightened with screws. The switches are based on steel blades that open and close the wave-guide between the back-to-back horns and are operated by miniaturized electromagnets. We also show the current development status of the feedhorn-switch system for the QUBIC full instrument, based on an array of 400 horn-switch assemblies.

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arXiv2022

QUBIC II: Spectro-Polarimetry with Bolometric Interferometry

Bolometric interferometry is a novel technique that has the ability to perform spectral imaging. A bolometric interferometer observes the sky in a wide frequency band and can reconstruct sky maps in several sub-bands within the physical band in post-processing of the data. This provides a powerful spectral method to discriminate between the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and astrophysical foregrounds. In this paper, the methodology is illustrated with examples based on the Q \& U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) which is a ground-based instrument designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the sky at millimeter wavelengths. We consider the specific cases of point source reconstruction and Galactic dust mapping and we characterize the point spread function as a function of frequency. We study the noise properties of spectral imaging, especially the correlations between sub-bands, using end-to-end simulations together with a fast noise simulator. We conclude showing that spectral imaging performance are nearly optimal up to five sub-bands in the case of QUBIC.

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arXiv2022

QUBIC III: Laboratory Characterization

A prototype version of the Q & U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) underwent a campaign of testing in the laboratory at Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology in Paris. We report the results of this Technological Demonstrator which successfully shows the feasibility of the principle of Bolometric Interferometry. Characterization of QUBIC includes the measurement of the synthesized beam, the measurement of interference fringes, and the measurement of polarization performance. A modulated and frequency tunable millimetre-wave source in the telescope far-field is used to simulate a point source. The QUBIC pointing is scanned across the point source to produce beam maps. Polarization modulation is measured using a rotating Half Wave Plate. The measured beam matches well to the theoretical simulations and gives QUBIC the ability to do spectro imaging. The polarization performance is excellent with less than 0.5\% cross-polarization rejection. QUBIC is ready for deployment on the high altitude site at Alto Chorillo, Argentina to begin scientific operations.

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arXiv2022

The LSPE-Strip beams

In this paper we describe the design and characterization of the optical system of LSPE/Strip, a coherent polarimeter array that will observe the microwave sky from the Teide Observatory in Tenerife in two frequency bands centred at 43 and 95 GHz through a dual-reflector crossed-Dragone telescope of 1.5 m aperture. In general, optical systems composed by a telescopefeed array assembly have non-idealities that might limit their ability to perform high-precision measurements. It is thus necessary to understand, characterize and properly control these systematic effects. For this reason, we performed electromagnetic simulations to characterize angular resolution, sidelobes, main beam symmetry, polarization purity and feedhorns orientation. The results presented in this paper will be an essential input for further optical studies and for the LSPE/Strip data analysis. Ultimately, they will be used to assess the impact of optical systematic effects on the scientific results.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck XV. Polarized foreground emission between 30 and 70 GHz

We constrain polarized foreground emission between 30 and 70 GHz with the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and WMAP data within the global Bayesian BeyondPlanck framework. We combine for the first time full-resolution Planck LFI time-ordered data with low-resolution WMAP sky maps at 33, 40 and 61 GHz. Spectral parameters are fit with a likelihood defined at the native resolution of each frequency channel. This analysis represents the first implementation of true multi-resolution component separation applied to CMB observations for both amplitude and spectral energy distribution (SED) parameters. For synchrotron emission, we approximate the SED as a power-law in frequency and find that the low signal-to-noise ratio of the current data strongly limits the number of free parameters that may be robustly constrained. We partition the sky into four large disjoint regions (High Latitude; Galactic Spur; Galactic Plane; and Galactic Center), each associated with its own power-law index. We find that the High Latitude region is prior-dominated, while the Galactic Center region is contaminated by residual instrumental systematics. The two remaining regions appear to be signal-dominated, and for these we derive spectral indices of $β_{\mathrm s}^{\mathrm{Spur}}=-3.17\pm0.06$ and $β_{\mathrm s}^{\mathrm{Plane}}=-3.03\pm0.07$, in good agreement with previous results. For thermal dust emission we assume a modified blackbody model and we fit a single power-law index across the full sky. We find $β_{\mathrm{d}}=1.64\pm0.03$, which is slightly steeper than reported from Planck HFI data, but still statistically consistent at the 2$σ$ confidence level.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck X. Bandpass and beam leakage corrections

We discuss the treatment of bandpass and beam leakage corrections in the Bayesian BeyondPlanck CMB analysis pipeline as applied to the Planck LFI measurements. As a preparatory step, we first apply three corrections to the nominal LFI bandpass profiles including removal of a known systematic effect in the ground measuring equipment at 61 GHz; smoothing of standing wave ripples; and edge regularization. The main net impact of these modifications is an overall shift in the 70 GHz bandpass of +0.6 GHz; we argue that any analysis of LFI data products, either from Planck or BeyondPlanck, should use these new bandpasses. In addition, we fit a single free bandpass parameter for each radiometer of the form $Δ_i = Δ_0 + δ_i$, where $Δ_0$ represents an absolute frequency shift per frequency band and $δ_i$ is a relative shift per detector. The absolute correction is only fitted at 30 GHz with a full $χ^2$-based likelihood, resulting in a correction of $Δ_{30}=0.24\pm0.03\,$GHz. The relative corrections are fitted using a spurious map approach, fundamentally similar to the method pioneered by the WMAP team, but without introducing many additional degrees of freedom. All bandpass parameters are sampled using a standard Metropolis sampler within the main BeyondPlanck Gibbs chain, and bandpass uncertainties are thus propagated to all other data products in the analysis. In total, we find that our bandpass model significantly reduces leakage effects. For beam leakage corrections, we adopt the official Planck LFI beam estimates without additional degrees of freedom, and only marginalize over the underlying sky model. We note that this is the first time leakage from beam mismatch has been included for Planck LFI maps.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck III. Commander3

We describe the computational infrastructure for end-to-end Bayesian CMB analysis implemented by the BeyondPlanck collaboration. This code is called commander3, and provides a statistically consistent framework for global analysis of CMB and microwave observations, and may be useful for a wide range of legacy, current, and future experiments. The paper has three main goals. Firstly, we provide a high-level overview of the existing code base, aiming to guide readers who wish to extend and adapt the code according to their own needs, or to reimplement it from scratch in a different programming language. Secondly, we discuss some critical computational challenges that arise within any global CMB analysis framework, for instance in-memory compression of time-ordered data, FFT optimization, and parallelization and load-balancing. Thirdly, we quantify the CPU and RAM requirements for the current BeyondPlanck analysis, and find that a total of 1.5 TB of RAM is required for efficient analysis, and the total cost of a full Gibbs sample is 170 CPU-hrs, including both low-level processing and high-level component separation, which is well within the capabilities of current low-cost computing facilities. The existing code base is made publicly available under a GNU General Public Library (GPL) license.

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arXiv2022

BeyondPlanck VIII. Efficient Sidelobe Convolution and Correction through Spin Harmonics

We introduce a new formulation of the Conviqt convolution algorithm in terms of spin harmonics, and apply this to the problem of sidelobe correction for BeyondPlanck, the first end-to-end Bayesian Gibbs sampling framework for CMB analysis. We compare our implementation to the previous Planck LevelS implementation, and find good agreement between the two codes in terms of accuracy, but with a speed-up reaching a factor of 3--10, depending on the frequency bandlimits, $l_{\textrm{max}}$ and $m_{\textrm{max}}$. The new algorithm is significantly simpler to implement and maintain, since all low-level calculations are handled through an external spherical harmonic transform library. We find that our mean sidelobe estimates for Planck LFI agree well with previous efforts. Additionally, we present novel sidelobe rms maps that quantify the uncertainty in the sidelobe corrections due to variations in the sky model.

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arXiv2021

The LSPE-Strip feed horn array

In this paper we discuss the design, manufacturing and characterization of the feed horn array of the Strip instrument of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) experiment. Strip is a microwave telescope, operating in the Q- and W-band, for the observation of the polarized emissions from the sky in a large fraction (about 37%) of the Northern hemisphere with subdegree angular resolution. The Strip focal plane is populated by forty-nine Q-band and six W-band corrugated horns, each feeding a cryogenically cooled polarimeter for the detection of the Stokes $Q$ and $U$ components of the polarized signal from the sky. The Q-band channel is designed to accurately monitor Galactic polarized synchrotron emission, while the combination of Q- and W-band will allow the study of atmospheric effects at the observation site, the Observatorio del Teide, in Tenerife. In this paper we focus on the development of the Strip corrugated feed horns, including design requirements, engineering and manufacturing, as well as detailed characterization and performance verification.

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arXiv2021

The COSmic Monopole Observer (COSMO)

The COSmic Monopole Observer (COSMO) is an experiment to measure low-level spectral distortions in the isotropic component of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Deviations from a pure blackbody spectrum are expected at low level ($<$ 1 ppm) due to several astrophysical and cosmological phenomena, and promise to provide important independent information on the early and late phases of the universe. They have not been detected yet, due to the extreme accuracy required, the best upper limits being still those from the COBE-FIRAS mission. COSMO is based on a cryogenic differential Fourier Transform Spectrometer, measuring the spectral brightness difference between the sky and an accurate cryogenic blackbody. The first implementation of COSMO, funded by the Italian PRIN and PNRA programs, will operate from the Concordia station at Dome-C, in Antarctica, and will take advantage of a fast sky-dip technique to get rid of atmospheric emission and its fluctuations, separating them from the monopole component of the sky brightness. Here we describe the instrument design, its capabilities, the current status. We also discuss its subsequent implementation in a balloon-flight, which has been studied within the COSMOS program of the Italian Space Agency.

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arXiv2021

QUBIC IV: Performance of TES Bolometers and Readout Electronics

A prototype version of the Q & U bolometric interferometer for cosmology (QUBIC) underwent a campaign of testing in the laboratory at Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology laboratory in Paris (APC). The detection chain is currently made of 256 NbSi transition edge sensors (TES) cooled to 320 mK. The readout system is a 128:1 time domain multiplexing scheme based on 128 SQUIDs cooled at 1 K that are controlled and amplified by an SiGe application specific integrated circuit at 40 K. We report the performance of this readout chain and the characterization of the TES. The readout system has been functionally tested and characterized in the lab and in QUBIC. The low noise amplifier demonstrated a white noise level of 0.3 nV.Hz^-0.5. Characterizations of the QUBIC detectors and readout electronics includes the measurement of I-V curves, time constant and the noise equivalent power. The QUBIC TES bolometer array has approximately 80% detectors within operational parameters. It demonstrated a thermal decoupling compatible with a phonon noise of about 5.10^-17 W.Hz^-0.5 at 410 mK critical temperature. While still limited by microphonics from the pulse tubes and noise aliasing from readout system, the instrument noise equivalent power is about 2.10^-16 W.Hz^-0.5, enough for the demonstration of bolometric interferometry.

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arXiv2021

QUBIC I: Overview and ScienceProgram

The Q $\&$ U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology (QUBIC) is a novel kind of polarimeter optimized for the measurement of the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is one of the major challenges of observational cosmology. The signal is expected to be of the order of a few tens of nK, prone to instrumental systematic effects and polluted by various astrophysical foregrounds which can only be controlled through multichroic observations. QUBIC is designed to address these observational issues with a novel approach that combines the advantages of interferometry in terms of control of instrumental systematic effects with those of bolometric detectors in terms of wide-band, background-limited sensitivity. The QUBIC synthesized beam has a frequency-dependent shape that results in the ability to produce maps of the CMB polarization in multiple sub-bands within the two physical bands of the instrument (150 and 220 GHz). These features make QUBIC complementary to other instruments and makes it particularly well suited to characterize and remove Galactic foreground contamination. In this article, first of a series of eight, we give an overview of the QUBIC instrument design, the main results of the calibration campaign, and present the scientific program of QUBIC including not only the measurement of primordial B-modes, but also the measurement of Galactic foregrounds. We give forecasts for typical observations and measurements: with three years of integration on the sky and assuming perfect foreground removal as well as stable atmospheric conditions from our site in Argentina, our simulations show that we can achieve a statistical sensitivity to the effective tensor-to-scalar ratio (including primordial and foreground B-modes) $σ(r)=0.015$.

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