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Francesco Piacentini

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Piacentini.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Combining Systematic Effects in CMB Polarization Experiments through map-based simulations: application to LiteBIRD's HWP non-idealities and detectors non-linearity

We quantify the impact of coupled instrumental systematics on next-generation CMB polarization experiments targeting primordial $B$-mode polarization, with a focus on the forthcoming \textit{LiteBIRD} satellite mission. We study the interplay between the non-linear response of Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers and Half-Wave Plate (HWP) non-idealities, in particular synchronous signals arising from differential emissivity. We develop a map-based formalism that captures the resulting intensity-to-polarization leakage by explicitly solving the binning map-making equations, avoiding the need for computationally expensive time-ordered data simulations. We apply this framework to \textit{LiteBIRD}, adopting its baseline scanning strategy and frequency configuration, and perform analyses at both single- and multi-frequency levels, including Galactic foregrounds and blind component separation. We find that while detector non-linearity and HWP non-idealities individually induce negligible bias on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, their coupling can generate non-trivial contamination, driven by large signals such as the solar dipole and amplified in high-frequency channels by foreground leakage. From these results, we derive joint requirements on detector non-linearity and HWP differential emission, and discuss their implications for the instrument design and calibration strategy of \textit{LiteBIRD} and future CMB polarization missions targeting $r \lesssim 10^{-3}$.

astro-ph.CO

Design of a Dichroic Transmissive Huygens' Metasurface Unit-Cell Presenting Refraction Angle Duality

A purely transmissive Huygens' metasurface model under plane-wave illumination is used to derive circuit parameters describing a constituent unit cell, such that diverse refraction angles are attained at two distinct frequency bands. Various levels of accuracy of the circuit description approaching the analytical are possible by constraining certain numbers of parameters. This theoretical study is then tested by calculating the exact formulas of the two representations for the various strategies proposed. By using simulations of a candidate unit-cell, we then examine whether such circuit parameters correspond to rudimentary versions of the geometry of a so-called parallel 'dogbone' structure. A device of this type is intended as dual-band (dichroic), dual-angle beam refractor diverting an incoming beam at different directions in two different bands without reflections.

physics.optics

Systematic effects induced by half-wave plate differential optical load and TES nonlinearity for LiteBIRD

LiteBIRD, a forthcoming satellite mission, aims to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) across the entire sky. The experiment will employ three telescopes, Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers and rotating Half-Wave Plates (HWPs) at cryogenic temperatures to ensure high sensitivity and systematic effects mitigation. This study is focused on the Mid- and High-Frequency Telescopes (MHFT), which will use rotating metal mesh HWPs. We investigate how power variations due to HWP differential emissivity and transmittance combine with TES nonlinear responsivity, resulting in an effective instrumental polarization. We present the results of simulations for the current HWP design, modeling the TES deviation from linearity as a second-order response. We quantify the level of acceptable residual nonlinearity assuming the mission requirement on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $δr < 0.001$. Moreover, we provide an accuracy requirement on the measurement of TES responsivity nonlinearity level for MHFT channels. Lastly, we present possible mitigation methods that will be developed in future studies.

astro-ph.IM

OLIMPO: a Balloon-Borne SZE Imager to Probe ICM Dynamics and the WHIM

OLIMPO is a proposed Antarctic balloon-borne Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) imager to study gas dynamics associated with structure formation along with the properties of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) residing in the connective filaments. During a 25 day flight OLIMPO will image a total of 10 z~0.05 galaxy clusters and 8 bridges at 145, 250, 365, and 460 GHz at an angular resolution of 1.0'-3.3'. The maps will be significantly deeper than those planned from CMB-S4 and CCAT-P, and will have excellent fidelity to the large angular scales of our low-z targets, which are difficult to probe from the ground. In combination with X-ray data from eROSITA and XRISM we will transform our current static view of galaxy clusters into a full dynamic picture by measuring the internal intra-cluster medium (ICM) velocity structure with the kinematic SZE, X-ray spectroscopy, and the power spectrum of ICM fluctuations. Radio observations from ASKAP and MeerKAT will be used to better understand the connection between ICM turbulence and shocks with the relativistic plasma. Beyond the cluster boundary, we will combine thermal SZE maps from OLIMPO with X-ray imaging from eROSITA to measure the thermodynamics of the WHIM residing in filaments, providing a better understanding of its properties and its contribution to the total baryon budget.

astro-ph.CO

Detailed study of HWP non-idealities and their impact on future measurements of CMB polarization anisotropies from space

We study the propagation of a specific class of instrumental systematics to the reconstruction of the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We focus on the non-idealities of the half-wave plate (HWP), a polarization modulator that is to be deployed by future CMB experiments, such as the phase-A satellite mission LiteBIRD. We study the effects of non-ideal HWP properties, such as transmittance, phase shift, and cross-polarization. To this end, we developed a simple, yet stand-alone end-to-end simulation pipeline adapted to LiteBIRD. We analyzed the effects of a possible mismatch between the measured frequency profiles of HWP properties (used in the mapmaking stage of the pipeline) and the actual profiles (used in the sky-scanning step). We simulated single-frequency, CMB-only observations to emphasize the effects of non-idealities on the BB power spectrum. We also considered multi-frequency observations to account for the frequency dependence of HWP properties and the contribution of foreground emission. We quantified the systematic effects in terms of a bias $Δr$ on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, with respect to the ideal case without systematic effects. We derived the accuracy requirements on the measurements of HWP properties by requiring $Δr < 10^{-5}$ (1% of the expected LiteBIRD sensitivity on $r$). Our analysis is introduced by a detailed presentation of the mathematical formalism employed in this work, including the use of the Jones and Mueller matrix representations.

astro-ph.CO

In-flight polarization angle calibration for LiteBIRD: blind challenge and cosmological implications

We present a demonstration of the in-flight polarization angle calibration for the JAXA/ISAS second strategic large class mission, LiteBIRD, and estimate its impact on the measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio parameter, r, using simulated data. We generate a set of simulated sky maps with CMB and polarized foreground emission, and inject instrumental noise and polarization angle offsets to the 22 (partially overlapping) LiteBIRD frequency channels. Our in-flight angle calibration relies on nulling the EB cross correlation of the polarized signal in each channel. This calibration step has been carried out by two independent groups with a blind analysis, allowing an accuracy of the order of a few arc-minutes to be reached on the estimate of the angle offsets. Both the corrected and uncorrected multi-frequency maps are propagated through the foreground cleaning step, with the goal of computing clean CMB maps. We employ two component separation algorithms, the Bayesian-Separation of Components and Residuals Estimate Tool (B-SeCRET), and the Needlet Internal Linear Combination (NILC). We find that the recovered CMB maps obtained with algorithms that do not make any assumptions about the foreground properties, such as NILC, are only mildly affected by the angle miscalibration. However, polarization angle offsets strongly bias results obtained with the parametric fitting method. Once the miscalibration angles are corrected by EB nulling prior to the component separation, both component separation algorithms result in an unbiased estimation of the r parameter. While this work is motivated by the conceptual design study for LiteBIRD, its framework can be broadly applied to any CMB polarization experiment. In particular, the combination of simulation plus blind analysis provides a robust forecast by taking into account not only detector sensitivity but also systematic effects.

astro-ph.CO

Studio di un urto anelastico: una proposta per le Scuole Secondarie di II grado nell'ambito del progetto "Lab2Go"

When a free falling ping-pong ball collides on a horizontal surface, it loses kinetic energy. The ratio between the height reached by the ball after the collision and the initial height is called restitution coefficient. A method to measure it by using a home-made cathetometer was proposed during the Olimpiadi di Fisica 2018. In this paper we show how to measure it also by using the PhyPhox app and Arduino board.

physics.ed-ph

A high-resolution view of the filament of gas between Abell 399 and Abell 401 from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and MUSTANG-2

We report a significant detection of the hot intergalactic medium in the filamentary bridge connecting the galaxy clusters Abell 399 and Abell 401. This result is enabled by a low-noise, high-resolution map of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich signal from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and Planck satellite. The ACT data provide the $1.65'$ resolution that allows us to clearly separate the profiles of the clusters, whose centres are separated by $37'$, from the gas associated with the filament. A model that fits for only the two clusters is ruled out compared to one that includes a bridge component at $>5σ$. Using a gas temperature determined from Suzaku X-ray data, we infer a total mass of $(3.3\pm0.7)\times10^{14}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ associated with the filament, comprising about $8\%$ of the entire Abell 399-Abell 401 system. We fit two phenomenological models to the filamentary structure; the favoured model has a width transverse to the axis joining the clusters of ${\sim}1.9\,\mathrm{Mpc}$. When combined with the Suzaku data, we find a gas density of $(0.88\pm0.24)\times10^{-4}\,\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$, considerably lower than previously reported. We show that this can be fully explained by a geometry in which the axis joining Abell 399 and Abell 401 has a large component along the line of sight, such that the distance between the clusters is significantly greater than the $3.2\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ projected separation on the plane of the sky. Finally, we present initial results from higher resolution ($12.7"$ effective) imaging of the bridge with the MUSTANG-2 receiver on the Green Bank Telescope.

astro-ph.CO

Il progetto Lab2Go per la diffusione della pratica laboratoriale nelle Scuole Secondarie di II grado

Even if laboratory practice is essential for all scientific branches of knowledge, it is often neglected at High School, due to lack of time and/or resources. To establish a closer contact between school and experimental sciences, the University Sapienza of Roma and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) launched the Lab2Go project, with the goal of spreading laboratory practice among students and teachers in high schools.

physics.ed-ph

The Crab Nebula as a Calibrator for wide-beam Cosmic Microwave Background polarization surveys

We analyze the effect of polarized diffuse emission in the calibration of wide-beam mm-wave polarimeters, when using the Crab Nebula as a reference source for both polarized brightness and polarization angle. We show that, for CMB polarization experiments aiming at detecting B-mode in a scenario with a tensor to scalar ratio $r \sim 0.001$, wide (a few degrees in diameter), precise ($σ_Q$ , $σ_U$ $\sim$ 20 $μ$$K_{CMB}$ arcmin), high angular resolution ($< \mathrm{FWHM}$) reference maps are needed to properly take into account the effects of diffuse polarized emission and avoid significant bias in the calibration.

astro-ph.CO

A Polarization Modulator Unit for the Mid- and High-Frequency Telescopes of the LiteBIRD mission

The LiteBIRD mission is a JAXA strategic L-class mission for all sky CMB surveys which will be launched in the 2020s. The main target of the mission is the detection of primordial gravitational waves with a sensitivity ofthe tensor-to-scalar ratio δr <0.001. The polarization modulator unit (PMU) represents a critical and powerful component to suppress 1/f noise contribution and mitigate systematic uncertainties induced by detector gain drift, both for the high-frequency telescope (HFT) and for the mid-frequency telescope (MFT). Each PMUs based on a continuously-rotating transmissive half-wave plate (HWP) held by a superconducting magnetic bearing in a 5K environment. In this proceeding we will present the design and expected performance of the LiteBIRD PMUs and testing performed on every PMU subsystem with a room-temperature rotating disk used as a stand-in for the cryogenic HWP rotor.

astro-ph.IM

A chemically etched corrugated feedhorn array for D-band CMB observations

We present the design, manufacturing, and testing of a 37-element array of corrugated feedhorns for Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements between $140$ and $170$ GHz. The array was designed to be coupled to Kinetic Inductance Detector arrays, either directly (for total power measurements) or through an orthomode transducer (for polarization measurements). We manufactured the array in platelets by chemically etching aluminum plates of $0.3$ mm and $0.4$ mm thickness. The process is fast, low-cost, scalable, and yields high-performance antennas compared to other techniques in the same frequency range. Room temperature electromagnetic measurements show excellent repeatability with an average cross polarization level about $-20$ dB, return loss about $-25$ dB, first sidelobes below $-25$ dB and far sidelobes below $-35$ dB. Our results qualify this process as a valid candidate for state-of-the-art CMB experiments, where large detector arrays with high sensitivity and polarization purity are of paramount importance in the quest for the discovery of CMB polarization $B$-modes.

astro-ph.IM

Cosmology Intertwined III: $f σ_8$ and $S_8$

The standard $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter cosmological model provides a wonderful fit to current cosmological data, but a few tensions and anomalies became statistically significant with the latest data analyses. While these anomalies could be due to the presence of systematic errors in the experiments, they could also indicate the need for new physics beyond the standard model. In this Letter of Interest we focus on the tension of the Planck data with weak lensing measurements and redshift surveys, about the value of the matter energy density $Ω_m$, and the amplitude or rate of the growth of structure ($σ_8,fσ_8$). We list a few interesting models for solving this tension, and we discuss the importance of trying to fit with a single model a full array of data and not just one parameter at a time.

astro-ph.CO

Cosmology Intertwined II: The Hubble Constant Tension

The current cosmological probes have provided a fantastic confirmation of the standard $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter cosmological model, that has been constrained with unprecedented accuracy. However, with the increase of the experimental sensitivity a few statistically significant tensions between different independent cosmological datasets emerged. While these tensions can be in portion the result of systematic errors, the persistence after several years of accurate analysis strongly hints at cracks in the standard cosmological scenario and the need for new physics. In this Letter of Interest we will focus on the $4.4σ$ tension between the Planck estimate of the Hubble constant $H_0$ and the SH0ES collaboration measurements. After showing the $H_0$ evaluations made from different teams using different methods and geometric calibrations, we will list a few interesting new physics models that could solve this tension and discuss how the next decade experiments will be crucial.

astro-ph.CO

Cosmology Intertwined I: Perspectives for the Next Decade

The standard $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter cosmological model provides an amazing description of a wide range of astrophysical and astronomical data. However, there are a few big open questions, that make the standard model look like a first-order approximation to a more realistic scenario that still needs to be fully understood. In this Letter of Interest we will list a few important goals that need to be addressed in the next decade, also taking into account the current discordances present between the different cosmological probes, as the Hubble constant $H_0$ value, the $σ_8 - S_8$ tension, and the anomalies present in the Planck results. Finally, we will give an overview of upgraded experiments and next-generation space-missions and facilities on Earth, that will be of crucial importance to address all these questions.

astro-ph.CO

Cosmology Intertwined IV: The Age of the Universe and its Curvature

A precise measurement of the curvature of the Universe is of primeval importance for cosmology since it could not only confirm the paradigm of primordial inflation but also help in discriminating between different early Universe scenarios. The recent observations, while broadly consistent with a spatially flat standard $Λ$ Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) model, are showing tensions that still allow (and, in some cases, even suggest) a few percent deviations from a flat universe. In particular, the Planck Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra, assuming the nominal likelihood, prefer a closed universe at more than 99\% confidence level. While new physics could be in action, this anomaly may be the result of an unresolved systematic error or just a statistical fluctuation. However, since a positive curvature allows a larger age of the Universe, an accurate determination of the age of the oldest objects provides a smoking gun in confirming or falsifying the current flat $Λ$CDM model.

astro-ph.CO

Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time

This paper discusses the science case for a sensitive spectro-polarimetric survey of the microwave sky. Such a survey would provide a tomographic and dynamic census of the three-dimensional distribution of hot gas, velocity flows, early metals, dust, and mass distribution in the entire Hubble volume, exploit CMB temperature and polarisation anisotropies down to fundamental limits, and track energy injection and absorption into the radiation background across cosmic times by measuring spectral distortions of the CMB blackbody emission. In addition to its exceptional capability for cosmology and fundamental physics, such a survey would provide an unprecedented view of microwave emissions at sub-arcminute to few-arcminute angular resolution in hundreds of frequency channels, a data set that would be of immense legacy value for many branches of astrophysics. We propose that this survey be carried-out with a large space mission featuring a broad-band polarised imager and a moderate resolution spectro-imager at the focus of a 3.5m aperture telescope actively cooled to about 8K, complemented with absolutely-calibrated Fourier Transform Spectrometer modules observing at degree-scale angular resolution in the 10-2000 GHz frequency range. We propose two observing modes: a survey mode to map the entire sky as well as a few selected wide fields, and an observatory mode for deeper observations of regions of specific interest.

astro-ph.CO

QUBIC: Exploring the primordial Universe with the Q\&U Bolometric Interferometer

In this paper we describe QUBIC, an experiment that will observe the polarized microwave sky with a novel approach, which combines the sensitivity of state-of-the art bolometric detectors with the systematic effects control typical of interferometers. QUBIC unique features are the so-called "self-calibration", a technique that allows us to clean the measured data from instrumental effects, and its spectral imaging power, i.e. the ability to separate the signal in various sub-bands within each frequency band. QUBIC will observe the sky in two main frequency bands: 150 GHz and 220 GHz. A technological demonstrator is currently under testing and will be deployed in Argentina during 2019, while the final instrument is expected to be installed during 2020.

astro-ph.IM