MEASUREMENTS OF E-MODE POLARIZATION AND TEMPERATURE-E-MODE CORRELATION IN THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND FROM 100 SQUARE DEGREES OF SPTPOL DATA

A. T. Crites, J. W. Henning, P. A.R. Ade, K. A. Aird, J. E. Austermann, J. A. Beall, A. N. Bender, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, J. E. Carlstrom, C. L. Chang, H. C. Chiang, H. M. Cho, R. Citron, T. M. Crawford, T. De Haan, M. A. Dobbs, W. Everett, J. Gallicchio, J. GaoE. M. George, A. Gilbert, N. W. Halverson, D. Hanson, N. Harrington, G. C. Hilton, G. P. Holder, W. L. Holzapfel, S. Hoover, Z. Hou, J. D. Hrubes, N. Huang, J. Hubmayr, K. D. Irwin, R. Keisler, L. Knox, A. T. Lee, E. M. Leitch, D. Li, C. Liang, D. Luong-Van, J. J. McMahon, J. Mehl, S. S. Meyer, L. Mocanu, T. E. Montroy, T. Natoli, J. P. Nibarger, V. Novosad, S. Padin, C. Pryke, C. L. Reichardt, J. E. Ruhl, B. R. Saliwanchik, J. T. Sayre, K. K. Schaffer, G. Smecher, A. A. Stark, K. T. Story, C. Tucker, K. Vanderlinde, J. D. Vieira, G. Wang, N. Whitehorn, V. Yefremenko, O. Zahn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present measurements of E-mode polarization and temperature-E-mode correlation in the cosmic microwave background using data from the first season of observations with SPTpol, the polarization-sensitive receiver currently installed on the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The observations used in this work cover 100 deg2 of sky with arcminute resolution at 150 GHz. We report the E-mode angular auto-power spectrum (EE) and the temperature-E-mode angular cross-power spectrum (TE) over the multipole range 500 < ℓ ≤ 5000. These power spectra improve on previous measurements in the high-ℓ (small-scale) regime. We fit the combination of the SPTpol power spectra, data from Planck, and previous SPT measurements with a six-parameter ΛCDM cosmological model. We find that the best-fit parameters are consistent with previous results. The improvement in high-ℓ sensitivity over previous measurements leads to a significant improvement in the limit on polarized point-source power: after masking sources brighter than 50 mJy in unpolarized flux at 150 GHz, we find a 95% confidence upper limit on unclustered point-source power in the EE spectrum of D = ℓ(ℓ + ℓ)C/2π < 0.40 μK2 at ℓ = 3000, indicating that future EE measurements will not be limited by power from unclustered point sources in the multipole range , and possibly much higher in ℓ.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number36
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume805
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 20 2015

Keywords

  • Cosmic background radiation
  • Cosmology: observations
  • Polarization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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