Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background

    General
    Description

    The general goal of this project is to determine and characterize the spatial and spectral variations in the temperature and polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background in angular scales from several arcminutes to several degrees. The primordial matter density fluctuations which originated the structure in the matter distribution of the present Universe, left imprinted inhomogeneities in the CMB temperature distribution, that are mathematically encoded in the so-called angular power spectrum. Initially, pioneering experiments like the COBE satellite (whose results deserved the Nobel Prize on Physics 2006) or the Tenerife CMB experiment demonstrated in the 90s that the level of anisotropy was about one part in a hundred thousands at angular scales of several degrees. Obtaining CMB maps at various frequencies with sufficient sensitivity to detect structures at this level is of fundamental importance to extract information on the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations, to prove the existence of an inflationary period in the Early Universe and to establish the ultimate nature of the dark matter and dark energy. Recently, the WMAP satellite obtained CMB maps with unprecedented sensitivity that allowed to set restrictions on a large number of cosmological parameters.

    The focus of this project is to undertake measurements at gradually higher angular resolutions and sensitivities, by using different experiments that have been operative from the Teide Observatory, like the Tenerife experiment, the IAC-Bartol experiment or the JBO-IAC interferometer. More recently, the Very Small Array interferometer performed observations between 1999 and 2008. At that time the COSMOSOMAS experiment was also operative, its goal having been not only the characterization of the primary CMB anisotropies but also the study and characterization of the Galactic foreground contamination. In more recent years the activity in this project has focused in the scientific exploitation of data from the Planck satellite, and in the development, operation and exploitation of the QUIJOTE experiment. Now that the Planck mission has been completed and finished, the activity is focused in the scientific exploitation of QUIJOTE, in the development of new instrumentation for QUIJOTE, and in in the development of new experiments that are being deployed or that will be deployed at the Teide Observatory: GroundBRID, STRIP, KISS and TMS.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    Collaborators
    Dr.
    Fernando Atrio Barandela
    Dr.
    Enrique Martínez González
    Dr.
    Carlos Hernández Monteagudo
    1. 6-7 june: XV QUIJOTE Scientific Meeting (IFCA, Santander)
    2. July: publication of the final results (12 articles) and data from the Planck satellite.
    3. 15-19 october: "CMB foregrounds for B-mode studies" conference, organised within the Radioforegrounds proyect, IV AME workshop, and XVI QUIJOTE Scientific Meeting (all these eventes were celebrated at the IAC)
    4. October: installation of the dome of the GroundBIRD experiment, at the Teide Observatory.
    5. December: aceptation of the third QUIJOTE scientific article (Poidevin et al. 2019)

    Related publications

    • Planck 2013 results. VI. High Frequency Instrument data processing

      Wedescribe the processing of the 531 billion raw data samples from the High Frequency Instrument (HFI), which we performed to produce six temperature maps from the first 473 days of Planck-HFI survey data. These maps provide an accurate rendition of the sky emission at 100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857GHz with an angular resolution ranging from 9.´7

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      112
    • Planck 2013 results. XIV. Zodiacal emission

      The Planck satellite provides a set of all-sky maps at nine frequencies from 30 GHz to 857 GHz. Planets, minor bodies, and diffuse interplanetary dust emission (IPD) are all observed. The IPD can be separated from Galactic and other emissions because Planck views a given point on the celestial sphere multiple times, through different columns of IPD

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      88
    • Planck 2013 results. XVIII. The gravitational lensing-infrared background correlation

      The multi-frequency capability of the Planck satellite provides information both on the integrated history of star formation (via the cosmic infrared background, or CIB) and on the distribution of dark matter (via the lensing effect on the cosmic microwave background, or CMB). The conjunction of these two unique probes allows us to measure directly

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      141
    • Planck 2013 results. XXV. Searches for cosmic strings and other topological defects

      Planck data have been used to provide stringent new constraints on cosmic strings and other defects. We describe forecasts of the CMB power spectrum induced by cosmic strings, calculating these from network models and simulations using line-of-sight Boltzmann solvers. We have studied Nambu-Goto cosmic strings, as well as field theory strings for

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      332
    • Planck 2013 results. XXVI. Background geometry and topology of the Universe

      The new cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps from Planck provide the highest-quality full-sky view of the surface of last scattering available to date. This allows us to detect possible departures from the standard model of a globally homogeneous and isotropic cosmology on the largest scales. We search for correlations induced by a

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      137
    • Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results

      The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched 14 May 2009 and has been scanning the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously since 12 August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      1000
    • Planck 2013 results. II. Low Frequency Instrument data processing

      We describe the data processing pipeline of the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) data processing centre (DPC) to create and characterize full-sky maps based on the first 15.5 months of operations at 30, 44, and 70 GHz. In particular, we discuss the various steps involved in reducing the data, from telemetry packets through to the production of

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      78
    • Planck 2013 results. III. LFI systematic uncertainties

      We present the current estimate of instrumental and systematic effect uncertainties for the Planck-Low Frequency Instrument relevant to the first release of the Planck cosmological results. We give an overview of the main effects and of the tools and methods applied to assess residuals in maps and power spectra. We also present an overall budget of

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      52
    • Planck 2013 results. IV. Low Frequency Instrument beams and window functions

      This paper presents the characterization of the in-flight beams, the beam window functions, and the associated uncertainties for the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI). Knowledge of the beam profiles is necessary for determining the transfer function to go from the observed to the actual sky anisotropy power spectrum. The main beam distortions

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      54
    • Planck 2013 results. V. LFI calibration

      We discuss the methods employed to photometrically calibrate the data acquired by the Low Frequency Instrument on Planck. Our calibration is based on a combination of the orbital dipole plus the solar dipole, caused respectively by the motion of the Planck spacecraft with respect to the Sun and by motion of the solar system with respect to the

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      69
    • Planck 2013 results. XI. All-sky model of thermal dust emission

      This paper presents an all-sky model of dust emission from the Planck 353, 545, and 857 GHz, and IRAS 100 μm data. Using a modified blackbody fit to the data we present all-sky maps of the dust optical depth, temperature, and spectral index over the 353-3000 GHz range. This model is a good representation of the IRAS and Planck data at 5' between

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      632
    • Planck 2013 results. XII. Diffuse component separation

      Planck has produced detailed all-sky observations over nine frequency bands between 30 and 857 GHz. These observations allow robust reconstruction of the primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations over nearly the full sky, as well as new constraints on Galactic foregrounds, including thermal dust and line emission from

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      278
    • Planck 2013 results. XIII. Galactic CO emission

      Rotational transition lines of CO play a major role in molecular radio astronomy as a mass tracer and in particular in the study of star formation and Galactic structure. Although a wealth of data exists for the Galactic plane and some well-known molecular clouds, there is no available high sensitivity all-sky survey of CO emission to date. Such

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      174
    • Planck 2013 results. XV. CMB power spectra and likelihood

      This paper presents the Planck 2013 likelihood, a complete statistical description of the two-point correlation function of the CMB temperature fluctuations that accounts for all known relevant uncertainties, both instrumental and astrophysical in nature. We use this likelihood to derive our best estimate of the CMB angular power spectrum from

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      625
    • Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters

      This paper presents the first cosmological results based on Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and lensing-potential power spectra. We find that the Planck spectra at high multipoles (ℓ ≳ 40) are extremely well described by the standard spatially-flat six-parameter λCDM cosmology with a power-law spectrum of

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      1000
    • Planck 2013 results. XVII. Gravitational lensing by large-scale structure

      On the arcminute angular scales probed by Planck, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are gently perturbed by gravitational lensing. Here we present a detailed study of this effect, detecting lensing independently in the 100, 143, and 217 GHz frequency bands with an overall significance of greater than 25σ. We use thetemperature

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      385
    • Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation

      We analyse the implications of the Planck data for cosmic inflation. The Planck nominal mission temperature anisotropy measurements, combined with the WMAP large-angle polarization, constrain the scalar spectral index to be ns = 0.9603 ± 0.0073, ruling out exact scale invariance at over 5σ.Planck establishes an upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      1000
    • Planck 2013 results. XXIII. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB

      The two fundamental assumptions of the standard cosmological model – that the initial fluctuations are statistically isotropic and Gaussian – are rigorously tested using maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy from the Planck satellite. The detailed results are based on studies of four independent estimates of the CMB that are

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      585
    • Planck 2013 results. XXIV. Constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity

      The Planck nominal mission cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps yield unprecedented constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity (NG). Using three optimal bispectrum estimators, separable template-fitting (KSW), binned, and modal, we obtain consistent values for the primordial local, equilateral, and orthogonal bispectrum amplitudes, quoting as our

      Ade, P. A. R. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      741
    • Planck 2013 results. XXVII. Doppler boosting of the CMB: Eppur si muove

      Our velocity relative to the rest frame of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) generates a dipole temperature anisotropy on the sky which has been well measured for more than 30 years, and has an accepted amplitude of v/c = 1.23 × 10-3, or v = 369. In addition to this signal generated by Doppler boosting of the CMB monopole, our motion also

      Planck Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2014
      Citations
      222

    Related talks

    No related talks were found.

    Related conferences

    • XIX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics "The Cosmic Microwave | Background: from quantum fluctuations to the present Universe"

      Tenerife, Canary Islands
      Spain
      Date
      -
      Past
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