Measurement of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Power Spectra from Two Years of BICEP Data
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Author
Chiang, H. Cynthia
Ade, Peter A. R.
Barkats, Denis
Battle, John O.
Bierman, Evan M.
Bock, James
Dowell, C. Darren
Duband, Lionel
Hivon, Eric F.
Holzapfel, William L.
Hristov, Victor V.
Jones, William C.
Keating, Brian G.
Kuo, Chao-Lin
Lange, Andrew E.
Leitch, Erik M.
Mason, Peter V.
Matsumura, Tomotake
Nguyen, Hien T.
Ponthieu, Nicolas
Pryke, Clement
Richter, Steffen
Rocha, Graca
Sheehy, Christopher
Takahashi, Yuki D.
Tolan, Jamie E.
Yoon, Ki Won
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
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https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/711/2/1123Metadata
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Chiang, H. Cynthia, Peter A. R. Ade, Denis Barkats, John O. Battle, Evan M. Bierman, James J. Bock, C. Darren Dowell, and et al. 2010. Measurement of cosmic microwave background polarization power spectra from two years of BICEP data. The Astrophysical Journal 711, no. 2: 1123-1140.Abstract
Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) is a bolometric polarimeter designed to measure the inflationary B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at degree angular scales. During three seasons of observing at the South Pole (2006 through 2008), BICEP mapped ~2% of the sky chosen to be uniquely clean of polarized foreground emission. Here, we present initial results derived from a subset of the data acquired during the first two years. We present maps of temperature, Stokes Q and U, E and B modes, and associated angular power spectra. We demonstrate that the polarization data are self-consistent by performing a series of jackknife tests. We study potential systematic errors in detail and show that they are sub-dominant to the statistical errors. We measure the E-mode angular power spectrum with high precision at 21 \(\leq\)ℓ (\leq\)335, detecting for the first time the peak expected at ℓ ~ 140. The measured E-mode spectrum is consistent with expectations from a ΛCDM model, and the B-mode spectrum is consistent with zero. The tensor-to-scalar ratio derived from the B-mode spectrum is r = 0.02+0.31 –0.26, or r < 0.72 at 95% confidence, the first meaningful constraint on the inflationary gravitational wave background to come directly from CMB B-mode polarization.Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11129150
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