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Edward J. Wollack

Publications and source records attributed to Edward J. Wollack.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Constraints on Local Non-Gaussianity from the ACT Cluster Catalog

We derive constraints on local-type primordial non-Gaussianity using the ACT DR6 Sunyaev--Zel'dovich cluster catalog. Modeling the redshift- and mass-dependent number counts of 1,201 clusters in the 10,347~deg$^2$ Legacy region, and accounting for survey completeness, intrinsic SZ scatter, and a weak-lensing-calibrated mass bias, we compute theoretical abundances using the Log--Edgeworth halo mass function. Assuming $Λ$CDM with well-motivated external priors, we obtain $f_{\rm NL} = 55 \pm 125$ (68% CL), consistent with Gaussian initial conditions. These constraints probe comoving scales of $5$--$10~{\rm Mpc}~h^{-1}$, complementing CMB bispectrum and scale-dependent bias measurements, which do not reach such small scales. We also find evidence for a 16.4% residual mass bias, which, although heavily informed by our adopted priors, plays a key role in matching observed and predicted counts but has negligible effect on $f_{\rm NL}$ constraints. We briefly discuss robustness of the results under relaxed priors and the prospects for next-generation SZ and lensing surveys to strengthen cluster-based tests of primordial non-Gaussianity.

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The Simons Observatory: On-sky performance of radio-transparent multi-layer insulation (RT-MLI) using Styroace-II Styrofoam

We present the on-sky performance of a Radio-Transparent Multi-Layer Insulation filter (RT-MLI) that uses Styroace-II styrofoam to reject ambient thermal radiation from entering a 0.42 m diameter aperture to a sub-100 mK bolometric detector array cooled by a dilution-refrigerator. We find that greater than 90% of the expected incident infra-red (IR) radiation is rejected, resulting in $<$12 W of measured transmitted power. Transmitted power in the detector passbands is consistent with a lower bound of 95%. We address filter design and placement, thermal loading, and mm-wave transmission.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: $B$-mode delensing with DR6 data and external tracers of large-scale structure

Large-scale $B$-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a prime target for current and future experiments in search of primordial gravitational waves (PGW). With increasingly sensitive instruments being deployed, secondary $B$-modes induced by the weak gravitational lensing of CMB photons are becoming an important limitation and need to be removed, a process known as delensing. In this work, we combine internally reconstructed CMB lensing maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR6 with galaxy samples from unWISE and a map of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) fluctuations from Planck to produce a well-correlated tracer of the CMB lensing field. Our co-added tracer, shown to be 55-85% correlated with the true lensing convergence at multipoles $L \leq 2000$, is then convolved with ACT DR6 $E$-mode polarization to yield a template of the lensing $B$-modes. We assess its performance on a wide range of scales by using it to delens ACT DR6 and Planck $B$-modes over 23% of the sky, removing around 39% of the lensing power at $100\leq l \leq 1500$ and 47% at $30 \leq l \leq 300$, respectively. Our template achieves the highest delensing efficiency to date and will be useful for the analysis of early polarization maps from the Simons Observatory (SO). We finally outline prospects for further improvements by including additional large-scale structure tracers from upcoming cosmological surveys.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cross-correlation of kSZ and continuity equation velocity reconstruction with photometric DESI LRGs

Over the last year, kinematic Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (kSZ) velocity reconstruction -- the measurement of the large-scale velocity field using the anisotropic statistics of the small-scale kSZ-galaxy overdensity correlation -- has emerged as a statistically significant probe of the large-scale Universe. In this work, we perform a 2-dimensional tomographic reconstruction using ACT DR6 CMB data and DESI legacy luminous red galaxies (LRGs). We measure the cross-correlation of the kSZ-reconstructed velocity $v^{\mathrm{kSZ}}$ with the velocity inferred from the continuity equation applied to the DESI LRGs $v^{\mathrm{cont}}$ at the $\sim 10 σ$ level, detecting the signal with an amplitude with respect to our theory of $b_v = 0.339\pm 0.034$. We fit a scale-dependent galaxy bias model to our measurement in order to constrain local primordial non-Gaussianity $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$, finding {$f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}=-180^{+61}_{-86}$} at 67\% confidence, with $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\mathrm{loc}}$ consistent with zero at 95\% confidence. We also measure an auto spectrum at $2.1σ$ significance which provides a constraint on $b_v$ of $b_v=0.26_{-0.05}^{+0.11}$, which is consistent with the measurement from the cross spectrum. Our combined measurement is $b_v=0.33\pm0.03$, an $11σ$ measurement. We find a good fit of our model to the data in all cases. Finally, we use different ACT frequency combinations to explore foreground contamination, finding no evidence for foreground contamination in our velocity cross correlation. We compare to a similar measurement where $v^{\mathrm{kSZ}}$ is directly cross correlated with the large-scale galaxy field, and find signs of foreground contamination which is contained in the equal-redshift spectra.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 Power Spectrum Foreground Model and Validation

We discuss the model of astrophysical emission at millimeter wavelengths used to characterize foregrounds in the multi-frequency power spectra of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6), expanding on Louis et al. (2025). We detail several tests to validate the capability of the DR6 parametric foreground model to describe current observations and complex simulations, and show that cosmological parameter constraints are robust against model extensions and variations. We demonstrate consistency of the model with pre-DR6 ACT data and observations from Planck and the South Pole Telescope. We evaluate the implications of using different foreground templates and extending the model with new components and/or free parameters. In all scenarios, the DR6 $Λ$CDM and $Λ$CDM+$N_{\rm eff}$ cosmological parameters shift by less than $0.5σ$ relative to the baseline constraints. Some foreground parameters shift more; we estimate their systematic uncertainties associated with modeling choices. From our constraint on the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich power, we obtain a conservative limit on the duration of reionization of $Δz_{\rm rei} < 4.4$, assuming a reionization midpoint consistent with optical depth measurements and a minimal low-redshift contribution, with varying assumptions for this component leading to tighter limits. Finally, we analyze realistic non-Gaussian, correlated microwave sky simulations containing Galactic and extragalactic foreground fields, built independently of the DR6 parametric foreground model. Processing these simulations through the DR6 power spectrum and likelihood pipeline, we recover the input cosmological parameters of the underlying cosmic microwave background field, a new demonstration for small-scale CMB analysis. These tests validate the robustness of the ACT DR6 foreground model and cosmological parameter constraints.

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Backlighting extended gas halos around luminous red galaxies: kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from DESI Y1 x ACT

The gas density profile around galaxies, shaped by feedback and affecting the galaxy lensing signal, is imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (kSZ). We precisely measure this effect ($S/N\approx 10$) via velocity stacking with more than 800,000 spectroscopically confirmed luminous red galaxies (LRG) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Y1 survey, which overlap with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 temperature maps over $\geq$ 4,000 deg$^2$. We explore the kSZ dependence with various galaxy parameters and find no significant trend with redshift, but clear trends with stellar mass and absolute magnitude in $g$, $r$, and $z$ bands. Our analysis suggests that the gas extends beyond the dark matter halo (99.5\% confidence, i.e. PTE = 0.005). We find a tentative preference for hydrodynamical simulation models with stronger feedback that drives gas further out (Illustris $z=0.5$, PTE = 0.37) over weaker-feedback cases (IllustrisTNG $z=0.8$, PTE = 0.045), though with limited statistical significance. In all cases, a free multiplicative amplitude was fit to the simulated profiles, and further modeling work is required to firm up these conclusions. We find consistency between kSZ profiles around spectroscopic and photometric LRG, with comparable statistical power, thus increasing our confidence in the photometric analysis. Additionally, we present the first kSZ measurement around DESI Y1 bright galaxy sample (BGS) and emission-line galaxies (ELG), whose features match qualitative expectations. Finally, we forecast $S/N \sim 50$ for future stacked kSZ measurements using data from ACT, DESI Y3, and Rubin Observatory. These measurements will serve as an input for galaxy formation models and baryonic uncertainties in galaxy lensing.

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The thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in galaxy clusters and filaments using multifrequency temperature maps of the cosmic microwave background: Abell 399--Abell 401 cluster pair case study

We present a multifrequency and multi-instrument methodology to study the physical properties of galaxy clusters and cosmic filaments using cosmic microwave background observations. Our approach enables simultaneous measurement of both the thermal (tSZ) and kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effects, incorporates relativistic corrections, and models astrophysical foregrounds such as thermal dust emission. We do this by jointly fitting a single physical model across multiple maps from multiple instruments at different frequencies, rather than fitting a model to a single Compton-$y$ map. We demonstrate the success of this method by fitting the Abell 399-Abell 401 galaxy cluster pair and filament system using archival data from the Planck satellite and new, targeted deep data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, covering 11 different frequencies over 14 maps from 30 GHz to 545 GHz. Our tSZ results are consistent with previous work using Compton-$y$ maps. We measure the line-of-sight peculiar velocities of the cluster-filament system using the kSZ effect and find statistical uncertainties on individual cluster peculiar velocities of $\lesssim $600 km s$^{-1}$, which are competitive with current state-of-the-art measurements. Additionally, we measure the optical depth of the filament component with a signal-to-noise of 8.5$σ$ and reveal hints of its morphology. This modular approach is well-suited for application to future instruments across a wide range of millimeter and sub-millimeter wavebands.

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Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Constraints on the Millimetre Flux of the Crab Pulsar

Millimeter-wave observations of pulsars, while crucial for understanding their emission mechanisms, remain scarce. We demonstrate that high-precision cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments like the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), though designed for cosmology, offer a unique capability for such time-domain science due to their high cadence and broad sky coverage in millimeter bands. While previous ACT searches have focused on transients lasting minutes or longer, we develop and validate analysis methods to search for periodic, millisecond-scale transients, a capability not typically associated with CMB experiments. We describe a phase-resolved mapmaking approach, which leverages the known periodicity of the signal to enhance sensitivity and offers advantages in diagnosing systematic errors. We also introduce a template-based fit to the raw data timestreams that independently validate our results. Applying these methods to estimate the millimeter flux of the Crab Pulsar (PSR B0531+21), we derive 95% confidence upper limits of 4.6 mJy, 4.4 mJy, and 20.7 mJy on the pulsar's period-averaged flux density at 96 GHz, 148 GHz, and 225 GHz, respectively. These constraints fill a gap in our knowledge of the Crab Pulsar's spectral energy distribution, suggesting that it does not significantly flatten or invert at millimeter wavelengths. This work demonstrates the potential for future searches of short-timescale astrophysical phenomena with the next-generation CMB experiments like the Simons Observatory.

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The Complex Magnetic Field of the Extreme Galactic Center: PRIMA Science Potential

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Galactic Center (GC) region of the Milky Way contains a substantial fraction of the molecular mass of the Galaxy >10e7 solar masses yet exhibits an order of magnitude lower star formation efficiency (SFE) than expected given the high densities found in this region. There are multiple possible explanations for the depressed SFE in the CMZ, like feedback, strong turbulence, longer free-fall timescales, and high magnetic field strengths. It is currently unclear which of these mechanisms is the dominant inhibitor of star formation in the CMZ. It is important to understand the star formation process in the extreme environment of the CMZ because it is the only Galactic nuclear region we are able to study at high spatial resolutions with current observatories. One way to determine the relative importance of the different SFE inhibiting mechanisms is through multi-spatial and multi-frequency polarimetric observations of the CMZ. Such observations will provide insight into the behavior of the magnetic field in this unique environment. These observations will complement radio observations of non-thermal structures revealing the magnetic field morphology and polarization. The PRobe far--Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) will be uniquely capable of contributing to such explorations by providing unique resolutions and frequencies for polarimetric observations. The PRIMAger instrument will yield polarimetric observations covering the wavelength range 80 -- 261 um with beam sizes ranging from 11 -- 28'', capabilities that complement existing and upcoming observatories.

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High-Efficiency and Low-Noise Detectors for the Upgraded CLASS 90 GHz Focal Plane

We present the in-lab and on-sky performance for the upgraded 90 GHz focal plane of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), which had four of its seven detector wafers updated during the austral winter of 2022. The update aimed to improve the transition-edge-sensor (TES) stability and bias range and to realize the high optical efficiency of the sensor design. Modifications included revised circuit terminations, electrical contact between the TES superconductor and the normal metal providing the bulk of the bolometer's heat capacity, and additional filtering on the TES bias lines. The upgrade was successful: 94% of detectors are stable down to 15% of the normal resistance, providing a wide overlapping range of bias voltages for all TESs on a wafer. The median telescope efficiency improved from $0.42^{+0.15}_{-0.22}$ to $0.60^{+0.10}_{-0.32}$ (68% quantiles). For the four upgraded wafers alone, median telescope efficiency increased to $0.65^{+0.06}_{-0.06}$. Given our efficiency estimate for the receiver optics, this telescope efficiency implies a detector efficiency exceeding $0.90$. The overall noise-equivalent temperature of the 90 GHz focal plane improved from 19 $μ$K$\sqrt{s}$ to 9.7 $μ$K$\sqrt{s}$.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope DR6 and DESI: Structure formation over cosmic time with a measurement of the cross-correlation of CMB Lensing and Luminous Red Galaxies

We present a high-significance cross-correlation of CMB lensing maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 6 (DR6) with spectroscopically calibrated luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We detect this cross-correlation at a significance of 38$σ$; combining our measurement with the Planck Public Release 4 (PR4) lensing map, we detect the cross-correlation at 50$σ$. Fitting this jointly with the galaxy auto-correlation power spectrum to break the galaxy bias degeneracy with $σ_8$, we perform a tomographic analysis in four LRG redshift bins spanning $0.4 \le z \le 1.0$ to constrain the amplitude of matter density fluctuations through the parameter combination $S_8^\times = σ_8 \left(Ω_m / 0.3\right)^{0.4}$. Prior to unblinding, we confirm with extragalactic simulations that foreground biases are negligible and carry out a comprehensive suite of null and consistency tests. Using a hybrid effective field theory (HEFT) model that allows scales as small as $k_{\rm max}=0.6$ $h/{\rm Mpc}$, we obtain a 3.3% constraint on $S_8^\times = σ_8 \left(Ω_m / 0.3\right)^{0.4} = 0.792^{+0.024}_{-0.028}$ from ACT data, as well as constraints on $S_8^\times(z)$ that probe structure formation over cosmic time. Our result is consistent with the early-universe extrapolation from primary CMB anisotropies measured by Planck PR4 within 1.2$σ$. Jointly fitting ACT and Planck lensing cross-correlations we obtain a 2.7% constraint of $S_8^\times = 0.776^{+0.019}_{-0.021}$, which is consistent with the Planck early-universe extrapolation within 2.1$σ$, with the lowest redshift bin showing the largest difference in mean. The latter may motivate further CMB lensing tomography analyses at $z<0.6$ to assess the impact of potential systematics or the consistency of the $Λ$CDM model over cosmic time.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: High-redshift measurement of structure growth from the cross-correlation of Quaia quasars and CMB lensing from ACT DR6 and $\textit{Planck}$ PR4

We measure the amplitude of matter fluctuations over a wide range of redshifts by combining CMB lensing observations from ACT DR6 and $\textit{Planck}$ PR4 with the overdensity of quasars from Quaia, a $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{unWISE}$ quasar catalog. Our analysis includes the CMB lensing power spectrum from ACT DR6, the auto-correlation of two Quaia quasar samples centered at $z \simeq 1.0$ and $z \simeq 2.1$, and their cross-correlations with CMB lensing from both ACT DR6 and $\textit{Planck}$ PR4. By performing a series of contamination and systematic null tests, we find no evidence for contamination in the lensing maps, contrary to what was suggested in previous Quaia cross-correlation analyses using $\textit{Planck}$ PR4 CMB lensing data. From the joint analysis of the quasar auto- and cross-correlations with CMB lensing, and including BOSS BAO data to break the degeneracy between $Ω_m$ and $σ_8$, we obtain $σ_8 = 0.802^{+0.045}_{-0.057}$, consistent with $Λ$CDM predictions from $\textit{Planck}$ primary CMB measurements. Combining the CMB lensing auto-spectrum with the cross-correlation measurement improves the constraint on $σ_8$ by $12\%$ relative to the lensing auto-spectrum alone, yielding $σ_8 = 0.804 \pm 0.013$. This dataset combination also enables a reconstruction of structure growth across redshifts. We infer a $12\%$ constraint on the amplitude of matter fluctuations at $z > 3$, with a measurement at the median redshift of the signal of $σ_8(\tilde{z}=5.1) = 0.146^{+0.021}_{-0.014}$, consistent with $\textit{Planck}$ at the $1.4σ$ level. These results provide one of the highest redshift constraints on the growth of structure to date.

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SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey. V. The Magnetic Field Strength and Morphology in the Sagittarius C Complex

We present an analysis of the magnetic field strength and morphology in the Sagittarius C complex (Sgr C; G359.43-0.09) in the Milky Way Galaxy's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), using the 214 $μ$m polarimetry data acquired with the High-resolution Airborne Wide-band Camera (HAWC+) instrument aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). We conduct a modified Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (DCF) analysis of individual clouds and find that the sky-plane magnetic field strength varies from highly turbulent regions having inferred strengths of $\sim30~μ{\rm G}$ to regions of relatively uniform field orientation having strengths of $\sim 300~μ{\rm G}$. Several hundred magnetic field pseudovectors in the Sgr C region were measured to trace the projected magnetic field orientation within cold molecular clouds, and as is the trend throughout the CMZ, they show a higher polarization fraction toward the periphery of the clouds. The magnetic field orientations suggest that outflows from active star-forming regions, such as the G359.43-0.10 extended green object (EGO) and the protostellar source FIR-4 (G359.43+0.02), cause high turbulence in their vicinity. The magnetic field direction is found to be tangential to the surface of the Sgr C HII region, which displays spatial correspondence with two [CII] emission cavities reported in the HII region, signifying a compression front between the HII region and the surrounding dense clouds. Several other features in the vicinity of Sgr C, especially numerous non-thermal radio filaments (NTFs) and a diffuse source of X-ray emission to the immediate southwest of the HII region, are discussed with regard to the magnetic field measurements.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A search for late-time anisotropic screening of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Since the formation of the first stars, most of the gas in the Universe has been ionized. Spatial variations in the density of this ionized gas generate cosmic microwave background anisotropies via Thomson scattering, a process known as the ``anisotropic screening'' effect. We propose and implement for the first time a new estimator to cross-correlate unWISE galaxies and anisotropic screening, as measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Planck satellite. We do not significantly detect the effect; the null hypothesis is consistent with the data at 1.7 $σ$ (resp. 0.016 $σ$) for the blue (resp. green) unWISE sample. We obtain an upper limit on the integrated optical depth within a 6 arcmin disk to be $\barτ< 0.033$ arcmin$^2$ at 95\% confidence for the blue sample and $\barτ< 0.057$ arcmin$^2$ for the green sample. Future measurements with Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 should detect this effect significantly. Complementary to the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, this probe of the gas distribution around halos will inform models of feedback in galaxy formation and baryonic effects in galaxy lensing.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Systematic Transient Search of Single Observation Maps

We conduct a systematic search for astrophysical transients using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). The data were taken from 2017 to 2022 in three frequency bands spanning 77 GHz to 277 GHz. In this paper we present a pipeline for transient detection using single observation maps where each pixel of a map contains one observation with an integration time of approximately four minutes. We detect 34 transient events at 27 unique locations. All but two of the transients are associated with Galactic stars and exhibit a wide range of properties. We also detect an event coincident with the classical nova YZ Ret and one event consistent with a flaring active galactic nucleus. We notably do not detect any reverse shock emission from gamma ray bursts, a non-detection that may be in tension with current models.

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PROTOCALC, A W-band polarized calibrator for CMB Telescopes: application to Simons Observatory and CLASS

Current- and next-generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments will measure polarization anisotropies with unprecedented sensitivities. The need for high precision in these measurements underscores the importance of gaining a comprehensive understanding of instrument properties, with a particular emphasis on the study of the beam properties and, in particular, their polarization characteristics, and the measurement of the polarization angle. In this context, a major challenge lies in the scarcity of millimeter polarized astrophysical sources with sufficient brightness and calibration knowledge to meet the stringent accuracy requirements of future CMB missions. This led to the development of a drone-borne calibration source designed for frequency band centered on approximately 90 GHz band, matching a commonly used channel in ground based CMB measurements. The PROTOtype CALibrator for Cosmology, PROTOCALC, has undergone thorough in-lab testing, and its properties have been subsequently modeled through simulation software integrated into the standard Simons Observatory (SO) analysis pipeline. Moreover, the PROTOCALC system has been tested in the field, having been deployed twice on calibration campaigns with CMB telescopes in the Atacama desert. The data collected constrain the roll angle of the source with a statistical accuracy of $0.045^\circ$.

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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Quantifying Atmospheric Emission above Cerro Toco

At frequencies below 1 Hz, fluctuations in atmospheric emission in the Chajnantor region in northern Chile are the primary source of interference for bolometric millimeter-wave observations. This paper focuses on characterizing these fluctuations using measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) water vapor radiometer. We show that the total precipitable water vapor (PWV) is not in general an accurate estimator of the level of fluctuations in millimeter-wave atmospheric emission. We also show that the microwave frequency spectrum of atmospheric fluctuations is in good agreement with predictions by the am code for frequency bands above 90 GHz. We introduce a new method for separating atmospheric and systematic fluctuations, allowing us to fit a robust atmospheric flatfield, as well as to study in the atmosphere in greater detail than previous works. We present a direct measurement of the temporal outer scale of turbulence of $τ_0\approx50$ s corresponding to a spatial scale of $L_0\approx500$ m. Lastly, we show the variance of fluctuations in ACT's mm-wave bands correlate with the variance of fluctuations in PWV measured by APEX, even though the observatories are $6$ km apart and observe different lines of sight.

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Systematic error mitigation for the PIXIE Fourier transform spectrometer

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) is an Explorer-class mission concept to measure the spectrum and polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Cosmological signals are small compared to the instantaneous instrument noise, requiring strict control of instrumental signals. The instrument design provides multiple levels of null operation, signal modulation, and signal differences, with only few-percent systematic error suppression required at each level. Jackknife tests based on discrete instrument symmetries provide an independent means to identify, model, and remove remaining instrumental signals. We use detailed time-ordered simulations, including realistic performance and tolerance parameters, to evaluate the instrument response to broad classes of systematic errors for both spectral distortions and polarization. The largest systematic errors contribute additional white noise at the few-percent level compared to the dominant photon noise. Coherent instrumental effects which do not integrate down are smaller still, and remain several orders of magnitude below the targeted cosmological signals.

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