Cosmic microwave background science at commercial airline altitudes

Stephen M. Feeney; Jon E. Gudmundsson; Hiranya V. Peiris; Licia Verde; Josquin Errard

doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slx040

Cosmic microwave background science at commercial airline altitudes

Stephen M. Feeney, Jon E. Gudmundsson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Licia Verde, Josquin Errard

Faculty of Physical Sciences

University of Iceland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Obtaining high-sensitivity measurements of degree-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the most direct path to detecting primordial gravitational waves. Robustly recovering any primordial signal from the dominant foreground emission will require high-fidelity observations at multiple frequencies, with excellent control of systematics. We explore the potential for a new platform for CMB observations, the Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle, to perform this task.We show that the Airlander 10 platform, operating at commercial airline altitudes, is well suited to mapping frequencies above 220 GHz, which are critical for cleaning CMB maps of dust emission. Optimizing the distribution of detectors across frequencies, we forecast the ability of Airlander 10 to clean foregrounds of varying complexity as a function of altitude, demonstrating its complementarity with both existing (Planck) and ongoing (C-BASS) foreground observations. This novel platform could play a key role in defining our ultimate view of the polarized microwave sky.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	L6-L10
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Volume	469
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slx040
Publication status	Published - Jul 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: We thank Stevie Bergman, Jeffrey Filippini,William Jones, Lyman Page and George Efstathiou for useful discussions. SMF was partially supported by Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom. The Center for Computational Astrophysics is supported by the Simons Foundation. HVP was partially supported by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) ERC GA no. 306478-CosmicDawn. LV acknowledges support by Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) under projects AYA2014-58747-P and MDM-2014-0369 of Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB) (Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu). JEG acknowledges support by Katherine Freese through a grant from the Swedish Research Council (Contract No. 638-2013-8993). The work of JE was performed within the LabEx Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) (reference ANR-10-LABX-63) part of the Idex Sorbonne Universités a Paris pour l'Enseignement et la Recherche (SUPER) and was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), as part of the programme Investissements d'avenir under the reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02 Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors.

Other keywords

Cosmic background radiation
Early Universe
Methods: statistical

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10.1093/mnrasl/slx040

Cite this

@article{799616af237447a492fcc1a65106c92d,

title = "Cosmic microwave background science at commercial airline altitudes",

abstract = "Obtaining high-sensitivity measurements of degree-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the most direct path to detecting primordial gravitational waves. Robustly recovering any primordial signal from the dominant foreground emission will require high-fidelity observations at multiple frequencies, with excellent control of systematics. We explore the potential for a new platform for CMB observations, the Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle, to perform this task.We show that the Airlander 10 platform, operating at commercial airline altitudes, is well suited to mapping frequencies above 220 GHz, which are critical for cleaning CMB maps of dust emission. Optimizing the distribution of detectors across frequencies, we forecast the ability of Airlander 10 to clean foregrounds of varying complexity as a function of altitude, demonstrating its complementarity with both existing (Planck) and ongoing (C-BASS) foreground observations. This novel platform could play a key role in defining our ultimate view of the polarized microwave sky.",

keywords = "Cosmic background radiation, Early Universe, Methods: statistical",

author = "Feeney, \{Stephen M.\} and Gudmundsson, \{Jon E.\} and Peiris, \{Hiranya V.\} and Licia Verde and Josquin Errard",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Stevie Bergman, Jeffrey Filippini,William Jones, Lyman Page and George Efstathiou for useful discussions. SMF was partially supported by Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom. The Center for Computational Astrophysics is supported by the Simons Foundation. HVP was partially supported by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) ERC GA no. 306478-CosmicDawn. LV acknowledges support by Spanish Ministerio de Econom{\'i}a, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) under projects AYA2014-58747-P and MDM-2014-0369 of Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB) (Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu). JEG acknowledges support by Katherine Freese through a grant from the Swedish Research Council (Contract No. 638-2013-8993). The work of JE was performed within the LabEx Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) (reference ANR-10-LABX-63) part of the Idex Sorbonne Universit{\'e}s a Paris pour l'Enseignement et la Recherche (SUPER) and was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), as part of the programme Investissements d'avenir under the reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 The Authors.",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1093/mnrasl/slx040",

language = "English",

volume = "469",

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journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters",

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AU - Feeney, Stephen M.

AU - Gudmundsson, Jon E.

AU - Peiris, Hiranya V.

AU - Verde, Licia

AU - Errard, Josquin

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Stevie Bergman, Jeffrey Filippini,William Jones, Lyman Page and George Efstathiou for useful discussions. SMF was partially supported by Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom. The Center for Computational Astrophysics is supported by the Simons Foundation. HVP was partially supported by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) ERC GA no. 306478-CosmicDawn. LV acknowledges support by Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) under projects AYA2014-58747-P and MDM-2014-0369 of Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB) (Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu). JEG acknowledges support by Katherine Freese through a grant from the Swedish Research Council (Contract No. 638-2013-8993). The work of JE was performed within the LabEx Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) (reference ANR-10-LABX-63) part of the Idex Sorbonne Universités a Paris pour l'Enseignement et la Recherche (SUPER) and was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), as part of the programme Investissements d'avenir under the reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02 Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors.

PY - 2017/7

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N2 - Obtaining high-sensitivity measurements of degree-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the most direct path to detecting primordial gravitational waves. Robustly recovering any primordial signal from the dominant foreground emission will require high-fidelity observations at multiple frequencies, with excellent control of systematics. We explore the potential for a new platform for CMB observations, the Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle, to perform this task.We show that the Airlander 10 platform, operating at commercial airline altitudes, is well suited to mapping frequencies above 220 GHz, which are critical for cleaning CMB maps of dust emission. Optimizing the distribution of detectors across frequencies, we forecast the ability of Airlander 10 to clean foregrounds of varying complexity as a function of altitude, demonstrating its complementarity with both existing (Planck) and ongoing (C-BASS) foreground observations. This novel platform could play a key role in defining our ultimate view of the polarized microwave sky.

AB - Obtaining high-sensitivity measurements of degree-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the most direct path to detecting primordial gravitational waves. Robustly recovering any primordial signal from the dominant foreground emission will require high-fidelity observations at multiple frequencies, with excellent control of systematics. We explore the potential for a new platform for CMB observations, the Airlander 10 hybrid air vehicle, to perform this task.We show that the Airlander 10 platform, operating at commercial airline altitudes, is well suited to mapping frequencies above 220 GHz, which are critical for cleaning CMB maps of dust emission. Optimizing the distribution of detectors across frequencies, we forecast the ability of Airlander 10 to clean foregrounds of varying complexity as a function of altitude, demonstrating its complementarity with both existing (Planck) and ongoing (C-BASS) foreground observations. This novel platform could play a key role in defining our ultimate view of the polarized microwave sky.

KW - Cosmic background radiation

KW - Early Universe

KW - Methods: statistical

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85049840562

U2 - 10.1093/mnrasl/slx040

DO - 10.1093/mnrasl/slx040

M3 - Article

SN - 1745-3925

VL - 469

SP - L6-L10

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

IS - 1

ER -

Cosmic microwave background science at commercial airline altitudes

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Other keywords

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