Search

Large angular scale surveys in the absence of atmosphere are essential for measuring the primordial $B$-mode power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Since this proposed measurement is about three to four orders of magnitude fainter than the temperature anisotropies of the CMB, in-flight calibration of the instruments and active suppression of systematic effects are crucial. We investigate the effect of changing the parameters of the scanning strategy on the in-flight calibration effectiveness, the suppression of the systematic effects themselves, and the ability to distinguish systematic effects by null-tests. Next-generation missions such as LiteBIRD, modulated by a Half-Wave Plate (HWP), will be able to observe polarisation using a single detector, eliminating the need to combine several detectors to measure polarisation, as done in many previous experiments and hence avoiding the consequent systematic effects. While the HWP is expected to suppress many systematic effects, some of them will remain. We use an analytical approach to comprehensively address the mitigation of these systematic effects and identify the characteristics of scanning strategies that are the most effective for implementing a variety of calibration strategies in the multi-dimensional space of common spacecraft scan parameters. We also present Falcons, a fast spacecraft scanning simulator that we developed to investigate this scanning parameter space.

We assess the capabilities of the LiteBIRD mission to map the hot gas distribution in the Universe through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect. Our analysis relies on comprehensive simulations incorporating various sources of Galactic and extragalactic foreground emission, while accounting for specific instrumental characteristics of LiteBIRD, such as detector sensitivities, frequency-dependent beam convolution, inhomogeneous sky scanning, and $1/f$ noise. We implement a tailored component-separation pipeline to map the thermal SZ Compton $y$-parameter over 98% of the sky. Despite lower angular resolution for galaxy cluster science, LiteBIRD provides full-sky coverage and, compared to the Planck satellite, enhanced sensitivity, as well as more frequency bands to enable the construction of an all-sky $y$-map, with reduced foreground contamination at large and intermediate angular scales. By combining LiteBIRD and Planck channels in the component-separation pipeline, we obtain an optimal $y$-map that leverages the advantages of both experiments, with the higher angular resolution of the Planck channels enabling the recovery of compact clusters beyond the LiteBIRD beam limitations, and the numerous sensitive LiteBIRD channels further mitigating foregrounds. The added value of LiteBIRD is highlighted through the examination of maps, power spectra, and one-point statistics of the various sky components. After component separation, the $1/f$ noise from LiteBIRD is effectively mitigated below the thermal SZ signal at all multipoles. Cosmological constraints on $S_8=\sigma_8\left(\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3\right)^{0.5}$ obtained from the LiteBIRD-Planck combined $y$-map power spectrum exhibits a 15% reduction in uncertainty compared to constraints from Planck alone. This improvement can be attributed to the increased portion of uncontaminated sky available in the LiteBIRD-Planck combined $y$-map., Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures, abstract shortened, submitted to JCAP

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, $\delta r < 0.001$. 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., Comment: Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024

LiteBIRD, the next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment, aims for a launch in Japan's fiscal year 2032, marking a major advancement in the exploration of primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. Orbiting the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2, this JAXA-led strategic L-class mission will conduct a comprehensive mapping of the CMB polarization across the entire sky. During its 3-year mission, LiteBIRD will employ three telescopes within 15 unique frequency bands (ranging from 34 through 448 GHz), targeting a sensitivity of 2.2\,$\mu$K-arcmin and a resolution of 0.5$^\circ$ at 100\,GHz. Its primary goal is to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ with an uncertainty $\delta r = 0.001$, including systematic errors and margin. If $r \geq 0.01$, LiteBIRD expects to achieve a $>5\sigma$ detection in the $\ell=$2-10 and $\ell=$11-200 ranges separately, providing crucial insight into the early Universe. We describe LiteBIRD's scientific objectives, the application of systems engineering to mission requirements, the anticipated scientific impact, and the operations and scanning strategies vital to minimizing systematic effects. We will also highlight LiteBIRD's synergies with concurrent CMB projects., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024

LiteBIRD, a forthcoming JAXA mission, aims to accurately study the microwave sky within the 40-400 GHz frequency range divided into 15 distinct nominal bands. The primary objective is to constrain the CMB inflationary signal, specifically the primordial B-modes. LiteBIRD targets the CMB B-mode signal on large angular scales, where the primordial inflationary signal is expected to dominate, with the goal of reaching a tensor-to-scalar ratio sensitivity of $\sigma_r\sim0.001$. LiteBIRD frequency bands will be split among three telescopes, with some overlap between telescopes for better control of systematic effects. Here we report on the development status of the detector arrays for the Low Frequency Telescope (LFT), which spans the 34-161 GHz range, with 12 bands subdivided between four types of trichroic pixels consisting of lenslet-coupled sinuous antennas. The signal from the antenna is bandpass filtered and sensed by AlMn Transition-Edge Sensors (TES). We provide an update on the status of the design and development of LiteBIRD's LFT LF1 (40-60-78 GHz), LF2 (50-68-89 GHz) pixels. We discuss design choices motivated by LiteBIRD scientific goals. In particular we focus on the details of the optimization of the design parameters of the sinuous antenna, on-chip bandpass filters, cross-under and impedance transformers and all the RF components that define the LF1 and LF2 pixel detection chain. We present this work in the context of the technical challenges and physical constraints imposed by the finite size of the instrument., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, SPIE 2024

We present detailed forecasts for the constraints on primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) that will be obtained with the LiteBIRD satellite. The constraints are driven by the effects of PMFs on the CMB anisotropies: the gravitational effects of magnetically-induced perturbations; the effects on the thermal and ionization history of the Universe; the Faraday rotation imprint on the CMB polarization; and the non-Gaussianities induced in polarization anisotropies. LiteBIRD represents a sensitive probe for PMFs and by exploiting all the physical effects, it will be able to improve the current limit coming from Planck. In particular, thanks to its accurate $B$-mode polarization measurement, LiteBIRD will improve the constraints on infrared configurations for the gravitational effect, giving $B_{\rm 1\,Mpc}^{n_{\rm B} =-2.9} < 0.8$ nG at 95% C.L., potentially opening the possibility to detect nanogauss fields with high significance. We also observe a significant improvement in the limits when marginalized over the spectral index, $B_{1\,{\rm Mpc}}^{\rm marg}< 2.2$ nG at 95% C.L. From the thermal history effect, which relies mainly on $E$-mode polarization data, we obtain a significant improvement for all PMF configurations, with the marginalized case, $\sqrt{\langle B^2\rangle}^{\rm marg}<0.50$ nG at 95% C.L. Faraday rotation constraints will take advantage of the wide frequency coverage of LiteBIRD and the high sensitivity in $B$ modes, improving the limits by orders of magnitude with respect to current results, $B_{1\,{\rm Mpc}}^{n_{\rm B} =-2.9} < 3.2$ nG at 95% C.L. Finally, non-Gaussianities of the $B$-mode polarization can probe PMFs at the level of 1 nG, again significantly improving the current bounds from Planck. Altogether our forecasts represent a broad collection of complementary probes, providing conservative limits on PMF characteristics that will be achieved with LiteBIRD., Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, abstract shortened

We present a study of the impact of an uncertainty in the beam far side-lobe knowledge on the measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background $B$-mode signal at large scale. It is expected to be one of the main source of systematic effects in future CMB observations. Because it is crucial for all-sky survey missions to take into account the interplays between beam systematic effects and all the data analysis steps, the primary goal of this paper is to provide the methodology to carry out the end-to-end study of their effect for a space-borne CMB polarization experiment, up to the cosmological results in the form of a bias $\delta r$ on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. LiteBIRD is dedicated to target the measurement of CMB primordial $B$ modes by reaching a sensitivity of $\sigma \left( r \right) \leq 10^{-3}$ assuming $r=0$. As a demonstration of our framework, we derive the relationship between the knowledge of the beam far side-lobes and the tentatively allocated error budget under given assumptions on design, simulation and component separation method. We assume no mitigation of the far side-lobes effect at any stage of the analysis pipeline. We show that $\delta r$ is mostly due to the integrated fractional power difference between the estimated beams and the true beams in the far side-lobes region, with little dependence on the actual shape of the beams, for low enough $\delta r$. Under our set of assumptions, in particular considering the specific foreground cleaning method we used, we find that the integrated fractional power in the far side-lobes should be known at a level as tight as $\sim 10^{-4}$, to achieve the required limit on the bias $\delta r < 1.9 \times 10^{-5}$. The framework and tools developed for this study can be easily adapted to provide requirements under different design, data analysis frameworks and for other future space-borne experiments beyond LiteBIRD.

We estimate the efficiency of mitigating the lensing $B$-mode polarization, the so-called delensing, for the $LiteBIRD$ experiment with multiple external data sets of lensing-mass tracers. The current best bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, is limited by lensing rather than Galactic foregrounds. Delensing will be a critical step to improve sensitivity to $r$ as measurements of $r$ become more and more limited by lensing. In this paper, we extend the analysis of the recent $LiteBIRD$ forecast paper to include multiple mass tracers, i.e., the CMB lensing maps from $LiteBIRD$ and CMB-S4-like experiment, cosmic infrared background, and galaxy number density from $Euclid$- and LSST-like survey. We find that multi-tracer delensing will further improve the constraint on $r$ by about $20\%$. In $LiteBIRD$, the residual Galactic foregrounds also significantly contribute to uncertainties of the $B$-modes, and delensing becomes more important if the residual foregrounds are further reduced by an improved component separation method., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures

We explore the capability of measuring lensing signals in $LiteBIRD$ full-sky polarization maps. With a $30$ arcmin beam width and an impressively low polarization noise of $2.16\,\mu$K-arcmin, $LiteBIRD$ will be able to measure the full-sky polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) very precisely. This unique sensitivity also enables the reconstruction of a nearly full-sky lensing map using only polarization data, even considering its limited capability to capture small-scale CMB anisotropies. In this paper, we investigate the ability to construct a full-sky lensing measurement in the presence of Galactic foregrounds, finding that several possible biases from Galactic foregrounds should be negligible after component separation by harmonic-space internal linear combination. We find that the signal-to-noise ratio of the lensing is approximately $40$ using only polarization data measured over $90\%$ of the sky. This achievement is comparable to $Planck$'s recent lensing measurement with both temperature and polarization and represents a four-fold improvement over $Planck$'s polarization-only lensing measurement. The $LiteBIRD$ lensing map will complement the $Planck$ lensing map and provide several opportunities for cross-correlation science, especially in the northern hemisphere.

We study the possibility of using the $LiteBIRD$ satellite $B$-mode survey to constrain models of inflation producing specific features in CMB angular power spectra. We explore a particular model example, i.e. spectator axion-SU(2) gauge field inflation. This model can source parity-violating gravitational waves from the amplification of gauge field fluctuations driven by a pseudoscalar "axionlike" field, rolling for a few e-folds during inflation. The sourced gravitational waves can exceed the vacuum contribution at reionization bump scales by about an order of magnitude and can be comparable to the vacuum contribution at recombination bump scales. We argue that a satellite mission with full sky coverage and access to the reionization bump scales is necessary to understand the origin of the primordial gravitational wave signal and distinguish among two production mechanisms: quantum vacuum fluctuations of spacetime and matter sources during inflation. We present the expected constraints on model parameters from $LiteBIRD$ satellite simulations, which complement and expand previous studies in the literature. We find that $LiteBIRD$ will be able to exclude with high significance standard single-field slow-roll models, such as the Starobinsky model, if the true model is the axion-SU(2) model with a feature at CMB scales. We further investigate the possibility of using the parity-violating signature of the model, such as the $TB$ and $EB$ angular power spectra, to disentangle it from the standard single-field slow-roll scenario. We find that most of the discriminating power of $LiteBIRD$ will reside in $BB$ angular power spectra rather than in $TB$ and $EB$ correlations., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to JCAP

Polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can help probe the fundamental physics behind cosmic inflation via the measurement of primordial $B$ modes. As this requires exquisite control over instrumental systematics, some next-generation CMB experiments plan to use a rotating half-wave plate (HWP) as polarization modulator. However, the HWP non-idealities, if not properly treated in the analysis, can result in additional systematics. In this paper, we present a simple, semi-analytical end-to-end model to propagate the HWP non-idealities through the macro-steps that make up any CMB experiment (observation of multi-frequency maps, foreground cleaning, and power spectra estimation) and compute the HWP-induced bias on the estimated tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$. We find that the effective polarization efficiency of the HWP suppresses the polarization signal, leading to an underestimation of $r$. Laboratory measurements of the properties of the HWP can be used to calibrate this effect, but we show how gain calibration of the CMB temperature can also be used to partially mitigate it. On the basis of our findings, we present a set of recommendations for the HWP design that can help maximize the benefits of gain calibration., Comment: 17 pages + appendices and bibliography, 7 figures, 1 table

LiteBIRD is a planned JAXA-led CMB B-mode satellite experiment aiming for launch in the late 2020s, with a primary goal of detecting the imprint of primordial inflationary gravitational waves. Its current baseline focal-plane configuration includes 15 frequency bands between 40 and 402 GHz, fulfilling the mission requirements to detect the amplitude of gravitational waves with the total uncertainty on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $\delta r$, down to $\delta r<0.001$. A key aspect of this performance is accurate astrophysical component separation, and the ability to remove polarized thermal dust emission is particularly important. In this paper we note that the CMB frequency spectrum falls off nearly exponentially above 300 GHz relative to the thermal dust SED, and a relatively minor high frequency extension can therefore result in even lower uncertainties and better model reconstructions. Specifically, we compare the baseline design with five extended configurations, while varying the underlying dust modeling, in each of which the HFT (High-Frequency Telescope) frequency range is shifted logarithmically towards higher frequencies, with an upper cutoff ranging between 400 and 600 GHz. In each case, we measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ uncertainty and bias using both parametric and minimum-variance component-separation algorithms. When the thermal dust sky model includes a spatially varying spectral index and temperature, we find that the statistical uncertainty on $r$ after foreground cleaning may be reduced by as much as 30--50 % by extending the upper limit of the frequency range from 400 to 600 GHz, with most of the improvement already gained at 500 GHz. We also note that a broader frequency range leads to better ability to discriminate between models through higher $\chi^2$ sensitivity. (abridged), Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures. Published in A&A

We measured the vibration of a prototype superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) operating at liquid nitrogen temperature. This prototype system was designed as a breadboard model for LiteBIRD low-frequency telescope (LFT) polarization modulator unit. We set an upper limit of the vibration amplitude at $36~\mathrm{\mu m}$ at the rotational synchronous frequency. During the rotation, the amplitude of the magnetic field produced varies. From this setup, we compute the static and AC amplitude of the magnetic fields produced by the SMB magnet at the location of the LFT focal plane as $0.24~\mathrm{G}$ and $3\times10^{-5}$$~\mathrm{G}$, respectively. From the AC amplitude, we compute TES critical temperature variation of $7\times10^{-8}$$~\mathrm{K}$ and fractional change of the SQUID flux is $\delta \Phi/\Phi_0|_{ac}=3.1\times10^{-5}$. The mechanical vibration can be also estimated to be $3.6\times 10^{-2}$$~\mathrm{N}$ at the rotation mechanism location., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physics

LiteBIRD is a JAXA-led strategic large-class satellite mission designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background and Galactic foregrounds from 34 to 448 GHz across the entire sky from L2 in the late 2020s. The scientific payload includes three telescopes which are called the low-, mid-, and high-frequency telescopes each with their own receiver that covers a portion of the mission's frequency range. The low frequency telescope will map synchrotron radiation from the Galactic foreground and the cosmic microwave background. We discuss the design, fabrication, and characterization of the low-frequency focal plane modules for low-frequency telescope, which has a total bandwidth ranging from 34 to 161 GHz. There will be a total of 4 different pixel types with 8 overlapping bands to cover the full frequency range. These modules are housed in a single low-frequency focal plane unit which provides thermal isolation, mechanical support, and radiative baffling for the detectors. The module design implements multi-chroic lenslet-coupled sinuous antenna arrays coupled to transition edge sensor bolometers read out with frequency-domain mulitplexing. While this technology has strong heritage in ground-based cosmic microwave background experiments, the broad frequency coverage, low optical loading conditions, and the high cosmic ray background of the space environment require further development of this technology to be suitable for LiteBIRD. In these proceedings, we discuss the optical and bolometeric characterization of a triplexing prototype pixel with bands centered on 78, 100, and 140 GHz., Comment: SPIE Astronomical Telescope + Instrumentation (AS22)

LiteBIRD is the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation polarization satellite mission led by ISAS/JAXA. The main scientific goal is to search for primordial gravitational wave signals generated from the inflation epoch of the Universe. LiteBIRD telescopes employ polarization modulation units (PMU) using continuously rotating half-wave plates (HWP). The PMU is a crucial component to reach unprecedented sensitivity by mitigating systematic effects, including 1/f noise. We have developed a 1/10 scale prototype PMU of the LiteBIRD LFT, which has a 5-layer achromatic HWP and a diameter of 50 mm, spanning the observational frequency range of 34-161 GHz. The HWP is mounted on a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) as a rotor and levitated by a high-temperature superconductor as a stator. In this study, the entire PMU system is cooled down to 10 K in the cryostat chamber by a 4-K Gifford-McMahon (GM) cooler. We propagate an incident coherent millimeter-wave polarized signal throughout the rotating HWP and detect the modulated signal. We study the modulated optical signal and any rotational synchronous signals from the rotation mechanism. We describe the testbed system and the preliminary data acquired from this setup. This testbed is built to integrate the broadband HWP PMU and evaluate the potential systematic effects in the optical data. This way, we can plan with a full-scale model, which takes a long time for preparation and testing.

Most upcoming CMB experiments are planning to deploy between a few thousand and a few hundred thousand TES bolometers in order to drastically increase sensitivity and unveil the B-mode signal. Differential systematic effects and $1/f$ noise are two of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve this result. In recent years, rotating Half-Wave Plates have become increasingly more popular as a solution to mitigate these effects, especially for those experiments that are targeting the largest angular scales. However, other effects may appear when a rotating HWP is being employed. In this paper we focus on HWP synchronous signals, which are due to intensity to polarization leakage induced by a rotating cryogenic multi-layer sapphire HWP employed as the first optical element of the telescope system. We use LiteBIRD LFT as a case study and we analyze the interaction between these spurious signals and TES bolometers, to determine whether this signal can contaminate the bolometer response. We present the results of simulations for a few different TES model assumptions and different spurious signal amplitudes. Modelling these effects is fundamental to find what leakage level can be tolerated and minimize non-linearity effects of the bolometer response., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Journal of Low Temperature Physics: LTD19 Special Edition

The two most common components of several upcoming CMB experiments are large arrays of superconductive TES (Transition-Edge Sensor) detectors and polarization modulator units, e.g. continuously-rotating Half-Wave Plates (HWP). A high detector count is necessary to increase the instrument raw sensitivity, however past experiments have shown that systematic effects are becoming one of the main limiting factors to reach the sensitivity required to detect primordial $B$-modes. Therefore, polarization modulators have become popular in recent years to mitigate several systematic effects. Polarization modulators based on HWP technologies require a rotating mechanism to spin the plate and modulate the incoming polarized signal. In order to minimize heat dissipation from the rotating mechanism, which is a stringent requirement particularly for a space mission like $LiteBIRD$, we can employ a superconductive magnetic bearing to levitate the rotor and achieve contactless rotation. A disadvantage of this technique is the associated magnetic fields generated by those systems. In this paper we investigate the effects on a TES detector prototype and find no detectable $T_c$ variations due to an applied constant (DC) magnetic field, and a non-zero TES response to varying (AC) magnetic fields. We quantify a worst-case TES responsivity to the applied AC magnetic field of $\sim10^5$ pA/G, and give a preliminary interpretation of the pick-up mechanism., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2022

LiteBIRD, the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with an expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA's H3 rocket. LiteBIRD is planned to orbit the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2, where it will map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization over the entire sky for three years, with three telescopes in 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz, to achieve an unprecedented total sensitivity of 2.2$\mu$K-arcmin, with a typical angular resolution of 0.5$^\circ$ at 100 GHz. The primary scientific objective of LiteBIRD is to search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission and system requirements, operation concept, spacecraft and payload module design, expected scientific outcomes, potential design extensions and synergies with other projects., Comment: 155 pages, accepted for publication in PTEP

A methodology to provide the polarization angle requirements for different sets of detectors, at a given frequency of a CMB polarization experiment, is presented. The uncertainties in the polarization angle of each detector set are related to a given bias on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ parameter. The approach is grounded in using a linear combination of the detector sets to obtain the CMB polarization signal. In addition, assuming that the uncertainties on the polarization angle are in the small angle limit (lower than a few degrees), it is possible to derive analytic expressions to establish the requirements. The methodology also accounts for possible correlations among detectors, that may originate from the optics, wafers, etc. The approach is applied to the LiteBIRD space mission. We show that, for the most restrictive case (i.e., full correlation of the polarization angle systematics among detector sets), the requirements on the polarization angle uncertainties are of around 1 arcmin at the most sensitive frequency bands (i.e., $\approx 150$ GHz) and of few tens of arcmin at the lowest (i.e., $\approx 40$ GHz) and highest (i.e., $\approx 400$ GHz) observational bands. Conversely, for the least restrictive case (i.e., no correlation of the polarization angle systematics among detector sets), the requirements are $\approx 5$ times less restrictive than for the previous scenario. At the global and the telescope levels, polarization angle knowledge of a few arcmins is sufficient for correlated global systematic errors and can be relaxed by a factor of two for fully uncorrelated errors in detector polarization angle. The reported uncertainty levels are needed in order to have the bias on $r$ due to systematics below the limit established by the LiteBIRD collaboration., Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures. Minor changes to match the final version in JCAP

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., Comment: Submitted to JCAP

Systematic effects arising from cosmic rays have been shown to be a significant threat to space telescopes using high-sensitivity bolometers. The LiteBIRD space mission aims to measure the polarised Cosmic Microwave Background with unprecedented sensitivity, but its positioning in space will also render it susceptible to cosmic ray effects. We present an end-to-end simulator for evaluating the expected scale of cosmic ray effect on the LiteBIRD space mission, which we demonstrate on a subset of detectors on the 166 GHz band of the Low Frequency Telescope. The simulator couples the expected proton flux at L2 with a model of the thermal response of the LFT focal plane and the electrothermal response of its superconducting detectors, producing time-ordered data which is projected into simulated sky maps and subsequent angular power spectra., Comment: To submit to the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP)

LiteBIRD is a JAXA-led Strategic Large-Class mission designed to search for the existence of the primordial gravitational waves produced during the inflationary phase of the Universe, through the measurements of their imprint onto the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). These measurements, requiring unprecedented sensitivity, will be performed over the full sky, at large angular scales, and over 15 frequency bands from 34GHz to 448GHz. The LiteBIRD instruments consist of three telescopes, namely the Low-, Medium- and High-Frequency Telescope (respectively LFT, MFT and HFT). We present in this paper an overview of the design of the Medium-Frequency Telescope (89-224GHz) and the High-Frequency Telescope (166-448GHz), the so-called MHFT, under European responsibility, which are two cryogenic refractive telescopes cooled down to 5K. They include a continuous rotating half-wave plate as the first optical element, two high-density polyethylene (HDPE) lenses and more than three thousand transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors cooled to 100mK. We provide an overview of the concept design and the remaining specific challenges that we have to face in order to achieve the scientific goals of LiteBIRD., Comment: SPIE Conference

LiteBIRD, the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. JAXA selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with its expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA's H3 rocket. LiteBIRD plans to map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization over the full sky with unprecedented precision. Its main scientific objective is to carry out a definitive search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with an insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. To this end, LiteBIRD will perform full-sky surveys for three years at the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2 for 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz with three telescopes, to achieve a total sensitivity of 2.16 micro K-arcmin with a typical angular resolution of 0.5 deg. at 100GHz. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission requirements, top-level system requirements, operation concept, and expected scientific outcomes., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures

The LiteBIRD satellite is planned to be launched by JAXA in the late 2020s. Its main purpose is to observe the large-scale B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anticipated from the Inflation theory. LiteBIRD will observe the sky for three years at the second Lagrangian point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system. Planck was the predecessor for observing the CMB at L2, and the onboard High Frequency Instrument (HFI) suffered contamination by glitches caused by the cosmic-ray (CR) hits. We consider the CR hits can also be a serious source of the systematic uncertainty for LiteBIRD. Thus, we have started a comprehensive end-to-end simulation study to assess impact of the CR hits for the LiteBIRD detectors. Here, we describe procedures to make maps and power spectra from the simulated time-ordered data, and present initial results. Our initial estimate is that $C_l^{BB}$ by CR is $\sim 2 \times 10^{-6}~\mu$K$_{\mathrm{CMB}}^{2}$ in a one-year observation with 12 detectors assuming that the noise is 1~aW/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ for the differential mode of two detectors constituting a polarization pair., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, SPIE Proceeding no. 114532H

LiteBIRD has been selected as JAXA's strategic large mission in the 2020s, to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization over the full sky at large angular scales. The challenges of LiteBIRD are the wide field-of-view (FoV) and broadband capabilities of millimeter-wave polarization measurements, which are derived from the system requirements. The possible paths of stray light increase with a wider FoV and the far sidelobe knowledge of $-56$ dB is a challenging optical requirement. A crossed-Dragone configuration was chosen for the low frequency telescope (LFT : 34--161 GHz), one of LiteBIRD's onboard telescopes. It has a wide field-of-view ($18^\circ \times 9^\circ$) with an aperture of 400 mm in diameter, corresponding to an angular resolution of about 30 arcminutes around 100 GHz. The focal ratio f/3.0 and the crossing angle of the optical axes of 90$^\circ$ are chosen after an extensive study of the stray light. The primary and secondary reflectors have rectangular shapes with serrations to reduce the diffraction pattern from the edges of the mirrors. The reflectors and structure are made of aluminum to proportionally contract from warm down to the operating temperature at $5\,$K. A 1/4 scaled model of the LFT has been developed to validate the wide field-of-view design and to demonstrate the reduced far sidelobes. A polarization modulation unit (PMU), realized with a half-wave plate (HWP) is placed in front of the aperture stop, the entrance pupil of this system. A large focal plane with approximately 1000 AlMn TES detectors and frequency multiplexing SQUID amplifiers is cooled to 100 mK. The lens and sinuous antennas have broadband capability. Performance specifications of the LFT and an outline of the proposed verification plan are presented., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures

[Abridged] The measurement of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is one of the current frontiers in cosmology. In particular, the detection of the primordial B-modes, could reveal the presence of gravitational waves in the early Universe. The detection of such component is at the moment the most promising technique to probe the inflationary theory describing the very early evolution of the Universe. We present the updated performance forecast of the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE), a program dedicated to the measurement of the CMB polarization. LSPE is composed of two instruments: Strip, a radiometer-based telescope on the ground in Tenerife, and SWIPE (Short-Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer) a bolometer-based instrument designed to fly on a winter arctic stratospheric long-duration balloon. The program is among the few dedicated to observation of the Northern Hemisphere, while most of the international effort is focused into ground-based observation in the Southern Hemisphere. Measurements are currently scheduled in Winter 2021/22 for SWIPE, with a flight duration up to 15 days, and in Summer 2021 with two years observations for Strip. We describe the main features of the two instruments, identifying the most critical aspects of the design, in terms of impact into performance forecast. We estimate the expected sensitivity of each instrument and propagate their combined observing power to the sensitivity to cosmological parameters, including the effect of scanning strategy, component separation, residual foregrounds and partial sky coverage. We also set requirements on the control of the most critical systematic effects and describe techniques to mitigate their impact. LSPE can reach a sensitivity in tensor-to-scalar ratio of $\sigma_r<0.01$, and improve constrains on other cosmological parameters., Comment: Submitted to JCAP. Abstract abridged for arXiv submission

The Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) is a cosmology program for the measurement of large scale curl-like features (B-modes) in the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Its goal is to constrain the background of inflationary gravity waves traveling through the universe at the time of matter-radiation decoupling. The two instruments of LSPE are meant to synergically operate by covering a large portion of the northern microwave sky. LSPE/STRIP is a coherent array of receivers planned to be operated from the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, for the control and characterization of the low-frequency polarized signals of galactic origin; LSPE/SWIPE is a balloon-borne bolometric polarimeter based on 330 large throughput multi-moded detectors, designed to measure the CMB polarization at 150 GHz and to monitor the polarized emission by galactic dust above 200 GHz. The combined performance and the expected level of systematics mitigation will allow LSPE to constrain primordial B-modes down to a tensor/scalar ratio of $10^{-2}$. We here report the status of the STRIP pre-commissioning phase and the progress in the characterization of the key subsystems of the SWIPE payload (namely the cryogenic polarization modulation unit and the multi-moded TES pixels) prior to receiver integration., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physics

Current and future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation experiments are targeting the polarized $B$-mode signal. The small amplitude of this signal makes a successful measurement challenging for current technologies. Therefore, very accurate studies to mitigate and control possible systematic effects are vital to achieve a successful observation. An additional challenge is coming from the presence of polarized Galactic foreground signals that contaminate the CMB signal. When they are combined, the foreground signals dominate the polarized CMB signal at almost every relevant frequency. Future experiments, like the LiteBIRD space-borne mission, aim at measuring the CMB $B$-mode signal with high accuracy to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ at the $10^{-3}$ level. We present a method to study the photometric calibration requirement needed to minimize the leakage of polarized Galactic foreground signals into CMB polarization maps for a multi-frequency CMB experiment. We applied this method to the LiteBIRD case, and we found precision requirements for the photometric calibration in the range $\sim10^{-4}-2.5\times10^{-3}$ depending on the frequency band. Under the assumption that the detectors are uncorrelated, we found requirements per detector in the range $\sim0.18\times10^{-2}-2.0\times10^{-2}$. Finally, we relate the calibration requirements to the band-pass resolution to define constraints for a few representative band-pass responses: $\Delta\nu\sim0.2-2$ GHz., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to JCAP

Radio, millimetre and sub-millimetre astronomy experiments as well as remote sensing applications often require castable absorbers with well known electromagnetic properties to design and realize calibration targets. In this context, we fabricated and characterized two samples using different ratios of two easily commercially available materials: epoxy (Stycast 2850FT) and magnetite ($\mathrm{Fe_{3}O_{4}}$) powder. We performed transmission and reflection measurements from 7 GHz up to 170 GHz with a VNA equipped with a series of standard horn antennas. Using an empirical model we analysed the data to extract complex permittivity and permeability from transmission data; then we used reflection data to validate the results. In this paper we present the sample fabrication procedure, analysis method, parameter extraction pipeline, and results for two samples with different epoxy-powder mass ratios., Comment: 7 pages, 18 figures, submitted to the Journal of Applied Physics (AIP)

Recent developments of transition-edge sensors (TESs), based on extensive experience in ground-based experiments, have been making the sensor techniques mature enough for their application on future satellite CMB polarization experiments. LiteBIRD is in the most advanced phase among such future satellites, targeting its launch in Japanese Fiscal Year 2027 (2027FY) with JAXA's H3 rocket. It will accommodate more than 4000 TESs in focal planes of reflective low-frequency and refractive medium-and-high-frequency telescopes in order to detect a signature imprinted on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by the primordial gravitational waves predicted in cosmic inflation. The total wide frequency coverage between 34GHz and 448GHz enables us to extract such weak spiral polarization patterns through the precise subtraction of our Galaxy's foreground emission by using spectral differences among CMB and foreground signals. Telescopes are cooled down to 5Kelvin for suppressing thermal noise and contain polarization modulators with transmissive half-wave plates at individual apertures for separating sky polarization signals from artificial polarization and for mitigating from instrumental 1/f noise. Passive cooling by using V-grooves supports active cooling with mechanical coolers as well as adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators. Sky observations from the second Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, L2, are planned for three years. An international collaboration between Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe is sharing various roles. In May 2019, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA selected LiteBIRD as the strategic large mission No. 2., Comment: Journal of Low Temperature Physics, in press

LiteBIRD is a proposed JAXA satellite mission to measure the CMB B-mode polarization with unprecedented sensitivity ($\sigma_r\sim 0.001$). To achieve this goal, $4676$ state-of-the-art TES bolometers will observe the whole sky for 3 years from L2. These detectors, as well as the SQUID readout, are extremely susceptible to EMI and other instrumental disturbances e.g. static magnetic field and vibration. As a result, careful analysis of the interference between the detector system and the rest of the telescope instruments is essential. This study is particularly important during the early phase of the project, in order to address potential problems before the final assembly of the whole instrument. We report our plan for the preparation of a cryogenic testbed to study the interaction between the detectors and other subsystems, especially a polarization modulator unit consisting of a magnetically-rotating half wave plate. We also present the requirements, current status and preliminary results., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted to the Journal of Low Temperature Physics: LTD18 Special Edition

In this paper we discuss the latest developments of the STRIP instrument of the "Large Scale Polarization Explorer" (LSPE) experiment. LSPE is a novel project that combines ground-based (STRIP) and balloon-borne (SWIPE) polarization measurements of the microwave sky on large angular scales to attempt a detection of the "B-modes" of the Cosmic Microwave Background polarization. STRIP will observe approximately 25% of the Northern sky from the "Observatorio del Teide" in Tenerife, using an array of forty-nine coherent polarimeters at 43 GHz, coupled to a 1.5 m fully rotating crossed-Dragone telescope. A second frequency channel with six-elements at 95 GHz will be exploited as an atmospheric monitor. At present, most of the hardware of the STRIP instrument has been developed and tested at sub-system level. System-level characterization, starting in July 2018, will lead STRIP to be shipped and installed at the observation site within the end of the year. The on-site verification and calibration of the whole instrument will prepare STRIP for a 2-years campaign for the observation of the CMB polarization., Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference "Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX", on June 15th, 2018, Austin (TX)