arXiv subjects

Carlo Burigana

Publications and source records attributed to Carlo Burigana.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

How accurately can we measure the hydrogen 2S->1S transition rate from the cosmological data?

Recent progress in observational cosmology, and especially the forthcoming PLANCK mission data, open new directions in so-called precision cosmology. In this paper we illustrate this statement considering the accuracy of cosmological determination of the two-quanta decay rate of 2s hydrogen atom state. We show that the PLANCK data will allow us to measure this decay rate significantly better than in the laboratory experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

CMB polarization anisotropies from cosmological reionization: extension to B-modes

The accurate understanding of the ionization history of the Universe plays a fundamental role in modern cosmology. It includes a phase of cosmological reionization after the standard recombination epoch, possibly associated to the early stages of structure and star formation. While the simple "τ-parametrization" of the reionization process and, in particular, of its imprints on the CMB anisotropy likely represents a sufficiently accurate modelling for the interpretation of current CMB data, a great attention has been recently posed on the accurate computation of the reionization signatures in the CMB for a large variety of astrophysical scenarios and physical processes. This work is aimed at a careful characterization of the imprints introduced in the polarization anisotropy, with particular attention to the B-modes. We have implemented a modified version of CAMB, the Cosmological Boltzmann code for computing the angular power spectrum (APS) of the anisotropies of the CMB, to introduce the hydrogen and helium ionization fractions predicted in astrophysical and phenomenological reionization histories, beyond the simple τ-parametrization. We compared the results obtained for these models for all the non-vanishing (in the assumed scenarios) modes of the CMB APS. The amplitude and shape of the B-mode APS depends, in particular, on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, and on the reionization history, thus an accurate modeling of the reionization process will have implications for the precise determination of r or to set more precise constraints on it through the joint analysis of E and B-mode polarization data available in the next future and from a mission of next generation. Considering also the limitation from potential residuals of astrophysical foregrounds, we discussed the capability of next data to disentangle between different reionization scenarios in a wide range of r.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

A numerical code for the solution of the Kompaneets equation in cosmological context

Context: The cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum probes physical processes and astrophysical phenomena occurring at various epochs of the Universe evolution. Current and future CMB absolute temperature experiments are aimed to the discovery of the very small distortions such those associated to the cosmological reionization process or that could be generated by different kinds of earlier processes. The interpretation of future data calls for a continuous improvement in the theoretical modeling of CMB spectrum. Aims: In this work we describe the fundamental approach and, in particular, the update to recent NAG versions of a numerical code, KYPRIX, specifically written for the solution of the Kompaneets equation in cosmological context, first implemented in the years 1989-1991, aimed at the very accurate computation of the CMB spectral distortions under quite general assumptions. Methods: We describe the structure and the main subdivisions of the code and discuss the most relevant aspects of its technical implementation. Results: We present some of fundamental tests we carried out to verify the accuracy, reliability, and performance of the code. Conclusions: All the tests done demonstrates the reliability and versatility of the new code version and its very good accuracy and applicability to the scientific analysis of current CMB spectrum data and of much more precise measurements that will be available in the future. The recipes and tests described in this work can be also useful to implement accurate numerical codes for other scientific purposes using the same or similar numerical libraries or to verify the validity of different codes aimed at the same or similar problems.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Large scale alignment anomalies of CMB anisotropies: a new test for residuals applied to WMAP 5yr maps

We analyze the alignment of the low multipoles (quadrupole and octupole) of various maps of the WMAP 5yr release: the CMB maps obtained with ILC and MCMC methods, the CMB map in the V band after foreground reduction, and, for comparison, the (not cleaned) V band map. We study how much this alignment is polluted by residuals on the Galactic region. Among the considered maps, the WMAP-ILC turns out to be the most clean map from the point of view of the proposed test. This result has been found studying the redistribution (due to the masking process) of each bin of the probability distribution functions of the alignment estimators. By construction, our method, feasible through Monte Carlo simulations, works for any possible mask adopted in the analysis of data from current and forthcoming CMB anisotropy experiments and it can only exclude that the considered map is clean.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

On the Transits of Solar System Objects in the Forthcoming PLANCK Mission: Data Flagging and Coeval Multifrequency Observations

In the context of current and future microwave surveys mainly dedicated to the accurate mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), mm and sub-mm emissions from Solar System will represent a potential source of contamination as well as an opportunity for new Solar System studies. In particular, the forthcoming ESA Planck mission will be able to observe the point-like thermal emission from planets and some large asteroids as well as the diffused Zodiacal Light Emission (ZLE). After a brief introduction to the field, we focus on the identification of Solar System discrete objects in the Planck time ordered data.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2008

B-Pol: Detecting Primordial Gravitational Waves Generated During Inflation

B-Pol is a medium-class space mission aimed at detecting the primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation through high accuracy measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. We discuss the scientific background, feasibility of the experiment, and implementation developed in response to the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call for Proposals.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Sunyaev-Zeldovich and Cosmic Microwave Background

Since its original formulation the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect has been recognized as a ``powerful laboratory'' for our comprehension of physical processes in cosmic structures and to derive crucial information on some general properties of the universe. After a discussion of the fundamental concepts and of some well established applications of the SZ effect towards galaxy clusters, I will focus on dedicated themes related to the SZ effect and other features in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) of particular interest in the view of the extremely high angular resolution observations achievable in the future with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). SKA will allow the mapping of the thermal and density structure of clusters of galaxies at radio and centimetre bands with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity and with an extremely accurate control of extragalactic radio source contamination. The signatures from SZ effects and free-free emission at galactic scales and in the intergalactic medium probe the structure evolution at various cosmic times. The detection of these sources and their imaging at the high resolution and sensitivity achievable with SKA will greatly contribute to the comprehension of crucial cosmological and astrophysical aspects, as the physical conditions of early ionized halos, quasars and proto-galactic gas. The spectacular improvement in our understanding of the properties of extragalactic radio sources at very faint fluxes achievable with SKA will allow to accurately model their contribution to the diffuse radio background, greatly contributing to the interpretation of next generation of CMB spectrum experiments devoted to probe the thermal plasma history at early times.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

On the dipole straylight contamination in spinning space missions dedicated to CMB anisotropy

We present an analysis of the dipole straylight contamination (DSC) for spinning space-missions designed to measure CMB anisotropies. Although this work is mainly devoted to the {\sc Planck} project, it is relatively general and allows to focus on the most relevant DSC implications. We first study a simple analytical model for the DSC in which the pointing direction of the main spillover can be assumed parallel or not to the spacecraft spin axis direction and compute the time ordered data and map. The map is then analysed paying particular attention to the DSC of the low multipole coefficients of the map. Through dedicated numerical simulations we verify the analytical results and extend the analysis to higher multipoles and to more complex (and realistic) cases by relaxing some of the simple assumptions adopted in the analytical approach. We find that the systematic effect averages out in an even number of surveys, except for a contamination of the dipole itself that survives when spin axis and spillover directions are not parallel and for a contamination of the other multipoles in the case of complex scanning strategies. In particular, the observed quadrupole can be affected by the DSC in an odd number of surveys or in the presence of survey uncompleteness or over-completeness. Various aspects relevant in CMB space projects (such as implications for calibration, impact on polarization measurements, accuracy requirement in the far beam knowledge for data analysis applications, scanning strategy dependence) are discussed.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Polarized synchrotron emission

Galactic synchrotron emission represents the most relevant foreground contamination in cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy observations at angular scales $θ\gsim 1^\circ$ and frequencies $ν\lsim 70$ GHz. The accurate understanding of its polarization properties is crucial to extract the cosmological information contained in the CMB polarization anisotropy. Radio surveys at $ν\sim 1$ GHz offer the unique opportunity to study Galactic synchrotron emission where it represents the dominant component, possibly except for regions close to the Galactic plane where free-free emission is also important. We review the observational status of Galactic radio surveys at scales $θ\gsim 0.5^\circ$. Leiden surveys, thanks to their frequency coverage from 0.408 GHz to 1.411 GHz, still remain of fundamental importance for the comprehension of depolarization phenomena. Recent surveys at 1.42 GHz (in both total intensity and polarization) with a better sensitivity and sky sampling now cover both celestial hemispheres and allow to accurately map the correlation properties of the diffuse synchrotron emission. We present an analysis of these surveys in terms of angular power spectrum. A comparison of a simple frequency extrapolation of these results with the recent WMAP results shows that we are close to map the bulk of the diffuse synchrotron polarization fluctuations and to understand the corresponding implications for CMB experiments.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Simulating the Zody Emission in the Planck Mission

The increasing sensitivity of cosmic microwave background (CMB) missions will require to significantly improve the accuracy in the subtraction of the various sources of Galactic foreground, from the most relevant components (synchrotron, dust and free-free emission) to those usually considered of minor relevance in CMB experiments. With respect to other Galactic diffuse components, the Zodiacal Light Emission (ZLE) is peculiar, depending not only on the observing direction but also on the location of the observer within the Solar System: ZLE behaves then as a large scale, time-dependent foreground. Starting from the existing far-infrared ZLE models, we discuss the impact of ZLE contribution in CMB maps and the level of contamination in time ordered data and maps expected from the forthcoming Planck space mission as well as the Planck capability to increase our knowledge of the ZLE properties.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Dipole Straylight Contamination and Low Multipoles

Kinematic dipole signal originates from the motion of the Sun with respect to the CMB rest frame. It is a remarkable signal, two orders of magnitude larger than the observed pattern of CMB anisotropies. Therefore the dipole subtraction from the main beam is of primary importance. But what happens to the dipole signal entering the main spillover (i.e. the most relevant far antenna pattern feature, responsible for the bulk of the straylight effect)? We present here an analytical and statistical study of this systematic effect for a spinning space-mission like {\sc Planck}.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

A multifrequency angular power spectrum analysis of the Leiden polarization surveys

The Galactic synchrotron emission is expected to be the most relevant source of astrophysical contamination in cosmic microwave background polarization measurements, at least at frequencies < 100 GHz and at angular scales > 30'. We present a multifrequency analysis of the Leiden surveys, linear polarization surveys covering essentially the Northern Celestial Hemisphere at five frequencies between 408 MHz and 1411 MHz. By implementing specific interpolation methods to deal with these irregularly sampled data, we produced maps of the polarized diffuse Galactic radio emission with pixel size of 0.92 deg. We derived the angular power spectrum (APS) (PI, E, and B modes) of the synchrotron dominated radio emission as function of the multipole, l. We considered the whole covered region and some patches at different Galactic latitudes. By fitting the APS in terms of power laws (C_l = k l^a), we found spectral indices that steepen with increasing frequency: from a = -(1-1.5) at 408 MHz to a = -(2-3) at 1411 MHz for 10 < l < 100 and from a = -0.7 to a = -1.5 for lower multipoles (the exact values depending on the considered sky region and polarization mode). The bulk of this steepening can be interpreted in terms of Faraday depolarization effects. We then considered the APS at various fixed multipoles and its frequency dependence. Using the APSs of the Leiden surveys at 820 MHz and 1411 MHz, we determined possible ranges for the rotation measure, RM, in the simple case of an interstellar medium slab model. Taking also into account the polarization degree at 1.4 GHz, we could break the degeneracy between the identified RM intervals. The most reasonable of them turned out to be RM = 9-17 rad/m^2.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Cyclotron emission effect on CMB spectral distortions

We investigated the role of the cyclotron emission (CE) associated to cosmic magnetic fields (MF) on the evolution of cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions. We computed the photon and energy injection rates by including spontaneous and stimulated emission and absorption. These CE rates have been compared with those of bremsstrahlung (BR) and double Compton scattering (DC), for realistic CMB distorted spectra at various cosmic epochs. For reasonable MF strengths we found that the CE contribution to the evolution of the CMB spectrum is much smaller than the BR and DC contributions. The constraints on the energy exchanges at various redshifts can be then derived, under quite general assumptions, by considering only Compton scattering (CS), BR, and DC, other than the considered dissipation process. Upper limits to the CMB polarization degree induced by CE have been estimated.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

On the effect of cyclotron emission on the spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background

We have investigated the role of the cyclotron emission associated to cosmic magnetic fields on the evolution of CMB spectral distortions by considering the contributions by spontaneous and stimulated emission and by absorption in the computation of the photon and energy injection rates. These cyclotron emission rates have been numerically compared with those of the relevant radiative processes operating in the cosmic plasma, bremsstrahlung and double Compton scattering, for realistic CMB distorted spectra at early and late epochs. For reasonable magnetic field strengths we find that the cyclotron emission contribution is much smaller than the bremsstrahlung and double Compton contributions, because of their different frequency locations and the high bremsstrahlung and double Compton efficiency to keep the long wavelength region of the CMB spectrum close to a blackbody (at electron temperature) during the formation of the spectral distortion. Differently from previous analyses, we find that for a very large set of dissipation mechanisms the role of cyclotron emission in the evolution of CMB spectral distortions is negligible and, in particular, it cannot re-establish a blackbody spectrum after the generation of a realistic early distortion. The constraints on the energy exchanges at various cosmic times can be then derived, under quite general assumptions, by considering only Compton scattering, bremsstrahlung, and double Compton, other than, obviously, the considered dissipation process. Finally, upper limits to the CMB polarization degree induced by cyclotron emission have been estimated.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects, free-free emission, and imprints on the cosmic microwave background

The signatures from Sunyaev-Zeldovich effects and free-free emission in the intergalactic and intracluster medium and at galactic scales probe the structure evolution at various cosmic times. The detection of these sources and, possibly, the precise imaging of their spatial structure at the high resolution and sensitivity achievable with SKA will greatly contribute to the comprehension of crucial cosmological and astrophysical aspects, as the physical conditions of early ionized halos, quasars and proto-galactic gas and the mapping of the thermal and density structure of clusters of galaxies, with an extremely accurate control of extragalactic radio sources, which represents also a useful by-product for future CMB spectrum experiments devoted to probe the thermal plasma history at early times.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Galactic foreground contribution to the BEAST CMB Anisotropy Maps

We report limits on the Galactic foreground emission contribution to the Background Emission Anisotropy Scanning Telescope (BEAST) Ka- and Q-band CMB anisotropy maps. We estimate the contribution from the cross-correlations between these maps and the foreground emission templates of an H$α$ map, a de-striped version of the Haslam et al. 408 MHz map, and a combined 100 $μ$m IRAS/DIRBE map. Our analysis samples the BEAST $\sim10^\circ$ declination band into 24 one-hour (RA) wide sectors with $\sim7900$ pixels each, where we calculate: (a) the linear correlation coefficient between the anisotropy maps and the templates; (b) the coupling constants between the specific intensity units of the templates and the antenna temperature at the BEAST frequencies and (c) the individual foreground contributions to the BEAST anisotropy maps. The peak sector contributions of the contaminants in the Ka-band are of 56.5% free-free with a coupling constant of $8.3\pm0.4$ $μ$K/R, and 67.4% dust with $45.0\pm2.0$ $μ$K/(MJy/sr). In the Q-band the corresponding values are of 64.4% free-free with $4.1\pm0.2$ $μ$K/R and 67.5% dust with $24.0\pm1.0$ $μ$K/(MJy/sr). Using a lower limit of 10% in the relative uncertainty of the coupling constants, we can constrain the sector contributions of each contaminant in both maps to $< 20$% in 21 (free-free), 19 (dust) and 22 (synchrotron) sectors. At this level, all these sectors are found outside of the $\mid$b$\mid = 14.6^\circ$ region. By performing the same correlation analysis as a function of Galactic scale height, we conclude that the region within $b=\pm17.5^{\circ}$ should be removed from the BEAST maps for CMB studies in order to keep individual Galactic contributions below $\sim 1$% of the map's rms.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Beam deconvolution in noisy CMB maps

The subject of this paper is beam deconvolution in small angular scale CMB experiments. The beam effect is reversed using the Jacobi iterative method, which was designed to solved systems of algebraic linear equations. The beam is a non circular one which moves according to the observational strategy. A certain realistic level of Gaussian instrumental noise is assumed. The method applies to small scale CMB experiments in general (cases A and B), but we have put particular attention on Planck mission at 100 GHz (cases C and D). In cases B and D, where noise is present, deconvolution allows to correct the main beam distortion effect and recover the initial angular power spectrum up to the end of the fifth acoustic peak. An encouraging result whose importance is analyzed in detail. More work about deconvolution in the presence of other systematics is in progress. This paper is related to the Planck LFI activities.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

1/f noise and other systematic effects in the Planck-LFI radiometers

We use an analytic approach to study the susceptibility of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument radiometers to various systematic effects. We examine the effects of fluctuations in amplifier gain, in amplifier noise temperature and in the reference load temperature. We also study the effect of imperfect gain modulation, non-ideal matching of radiometer parameters, imperfect isolation in the two legs of the radiometer and back-end 1/f noise. We find that with proper gain modulation 1/f gain fluctuations are suppressed, leaving fluctuations in amplifier noise temperature as the main source of 1/f noise. We estimate that with a gain modulation factor within +- 1% of its ideal value the overall 1/f knee frequency will be relatively small (< 0.1 Hz).

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