Search

We present estimates of line-of-sight distortion fields derived from the 95 and 150 GHz data taken by BICEP2, BICEP3, and the Keck Array up to the 2018 observing season, leading to cosmological constraints and a study of instrumental and astrophysical systematics. Cosmological constraints are derived from three of the distortion fields concerning gravitational lensing from large-scale structure, polarization rotation from magnetic fields or an axion-like field, and the screening effect of patchy reionization. We measure an amplitude of the lensing power spectrum ${A}_{L}^{\phi \phi }=0.95\pm 0.20$ . We constrain polarization rotation, expressed as the coupling constant of a Chern–Simons electromagnetic term g _a _γ ≤ 2.6 × 10 ^−2 / H _I , where H _I is the inflationary Hubble parameter, and an amplitude of primordial magnetic fields smoothed over 1 Mpc B _1Mpc ≤ 6.6 nG at 95 GHz. We constrain the rms of optical depth fluctuations in a simple “crinkly surface” model of patchy reionization, finding A ^τ < 0.19 (2 σ ) for the coherence scale of L _c = 100. We show that all of the distortion fields of the 95 and 150 GHz polarization maps are consistent with simulations including lensed ΛCDM, dust, and noise, with no evidence for instrumental systematics. In some cases, the EB and TB quadratic estimators presented here are more sensitive than our previous map-based null tests at identifying and rejecting spurious B -modes that might arise from instrumental effects. Finally, we verify that the standard deprojection filtering in the BICEP/Keck data processing is effective at removing temperature to polarization leakage.

We characterize Galactic dust filaments by correlating BICEP/Keck and Planck data with polarization templates based on neutral hydrogen (H i ) observations. Dust polarization is important for both our understanding of astrophysical processes in the interstellar medium (ISM) and the search for primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In the diffuse ISM, H i is strongly correlated with the dust and partly organized into filaments that are aligned with the local magnetic field. We analyze the deep BICEP/Keck data at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, over the low-column-density region of sky where BICEP/Keck has set the best limits on primordial gravitational waves. We separate the H i emission into distinct velocity components and detect dust polarization correlated with the local Galactic H i but not with the H i associated with Magellanic Stream i . We present a robust, multifrequency detection of polarized dust emission correlated with the filamentary H i morphology template down to 95 GHz. For assessing its utility for foreground cleaning, we report that the H i morphology template correlates in B modes at a ∼10%–65% level over the multipole range 20 < ℓ < 200 with the BICEP/Keck maps, which contain contributions from dust, CMB, and noise components. We measure the spectral index of the filamentary dust component spectral energy distribution to be β = 1.54 ± 0.13. We find no evidence for decorrelation in this region between the filaments and the rest of the dust field or from the inclusion of dust associated with the intermediate velocity H i . Finally, we explore the morphological parameter space in the H i -based filamentary model.

Many low-threshold experiments observe sharply rising event rates of yet unknown origins below a few hundred eV, and larger than expected from known backgrounds. Due to the significant impact of this excess on the dark matter or neutrino sensitivity of these experiments, a collective effort has been started to share the knowledge about the individual observations. For this, the EXCESS Workshop was initiated. In its first iteration in June 2021, ten rare event search collaborations contributed to this initiative via talks and discussions. The contributing collaborations were CONNIE, CRESST, DAMIC, EDELWEISS, MINER, NEWS-G, NUCLEUS, RICOCHET, SENSEI and SuperCDMS. They presented data about their observed energy spectra and known backgrounds together with details about the respective measurements. In this paper, we summarize the presented information and give a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences between the distinct measurements. The provided data is furthermore publicly available on the workshop’s data repository together with a plotting tool for visualization.

Precision measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization require extreme control of instrumental systematics. In a companion paper we have presented cosmological constraints from observations with the BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments up to and including the 2015 observing season (BK15), resulting in the deepest CMB polarization maps to date and a statistical sensitivity to the tensor-to-scalar ratio of σ(r) = 0.020. In this work we characterize the beams and constrain potential systematic contamination from main beam shape mismatch at the three BK15 frequencies (95, 150, and 220 GHz). Far-field maps of 7360 distinct beam patterns taken from 2010–2015 are used to measure differential beam parameters and predict the contribution of temperature-to-polarization leakage to the BK15 B-mode maps. In the multifrequency, multicomponent likelihood analysis that uses BK15, Planck, and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe maps to separate sky components, we find that adding this predicted leakage to simulations induces a bias of Δr = 0.0027 ± 0.0019. Future results using higher-quality beam maps and improved techniques to detect such leakage in CMB data will substantially reduce this uncertainty, enabling the levels of systematics control needed for BICEP Array and other experiments that plan to definitively probe large-field inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new upper limit on cosmic microwave background (CMB) circular polarization from the 2015 flight of Spider, a balloon-borne telescope designed to search for B-mode linear polarization from cosmic inflation. Although the level of circular polarization in the CMB is predicted to be very small, experimental limits provide a valuable test of the underlying models. By exploiting the nonzero circular-to-linear polarization coupling of the half-wave plate polarization modulators, data from Spider's 2015 Antarctic flight provide a constraint on Stokes V at 95 and 150 GHz in the range . No other limits exist over this full range of angular scales, and Spider improves on the previous limit by several orders of magnitude, providing 95% C.L. constraints on ranging from 141 to 255 μK2 at 150 GHz for a thermal CMB spectrum. As linear CMB polarization experiments become increasingly sensitive, the techniques described in this paper can be applied to obtain even stronger constraints on circular polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present measurements of polarization lensing using the 150 GHz maps, which include all data taken by the BICEP2 and KeckArray Cosmic Microwave Background polarization experiments up to and including the 2014 observing season (BK14). Despite their modest angular resolution (), the excellent sensitivity (∼3μK-arcmin) of these maps makes it possible to directly reconstruct the lensing potential using only information at larger angular scales (). From the auto-spectrum of the reconstructed potential, we measure an amplitude of the spectrum to be (Planck ΛCDM prediction corresponds to ) and reject the no-lensing hypothesis at , which is the highest significance achieved to date using an EB lensing estimator. Taking the cross-spectrum of the reconstructed potential with the Planck 2015 lensing map yields . These direct measurements of are consistent with the ΛCDM cosmology and with that derived from the previously reported BK14 B-mode auto-spectrum (). We perform a series of null tests and consistency checks to show that these results are robust against systematics and are insensitive to analysis choices. These results unambiguously demonstrate that the B modes previously reported by BICEP/Keck at intermediate angular scales () are dominated by gravitational lensing. The good agreement between the lensing amplitudes obtained from the lensing reconstruction and B-mode spectrum starts to place constraints on any alternative cosmological sources of B modes at these angular scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A linear polarization field on the sphere can be uniquely decomposed into an E-mode and a B-mode component. These two components are analytically defined in terms of spin-2 spherical harmonics. Maps that contain filtered modes on a partial sky can also be decomposed into E-mode and B-mode components. However, the lack of full sky information prevents orthogonally separating these components using spherical harmonics. In this paper, we present a technique for decomposing an incomplete map into E and B-mode components using E and B eigenmodes of the pixel covariance in the observed map. This method is found to orthogonally define E and B in the presence of both partial sky coverage and spatial filtering. This method has been applied to the Bicep2 and the Keck Array maps and results in reducing E to B leakage from ΛCDM E-modes to a level corresponding to a tensor-to-scalar ratio of . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a companion paper, we have reported a >5σ detection of degree scale B-mode polarization at 150 GHz by the Bicep2 experiment. Here we provide a detailed study of potential instrumental systematic contamination to that measurement. We focus extensively on spurious polarization that can potentially arise from beam imperfections. We present a heuristic classification of beam imperfections according to their symmetries and uniformities, and discuss how resulting contamination adds or cancels in maps that combine observations made at multiple orientations of the telescope about its boresight axis. We introduce a technique, which we call “deprojection,” for filtering the leading order beam-induced contamination from time-ordered data, and show that it reduces power in Bicep2's actual and null-test BB spectra consistent with predictions using high signal-to-noise beam shape measurements. We detail the simulation pipeline that we use to directly simulate instrumental systematics and the calibration data used as input to that pipeline. Finally, we present the constraints on BB contamination from individual sources of potential systematics. We find that systematics contribute BB power that is a factor of ∼10× below Bicep2's three-year statistical uncertainty, and negligible compared to the observed BB signal. The contribution to the best-fit tensor/scalar ratio is at a level equivalent to r = (3–6) × 10−3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor bolometers for a wide range of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimetry experiments, including Bicep2, Keck Array, and the balloon borne Spider. These detectors have reached maturity and this paper reports on their design principles, overall performance, and key challenges associated with design and production. Our detector arrays repeatedly produce spectral bands with 20%–30% bandwidth at 95, 150, or 230 GHz. The integrated antenna arrays synthesize symmetric co-aligned beams with controlled side-lobe levels. Cross-polarized response on boresight is typically , consistent with cross-talk in our multiplexed readout system. End-to-end optical efficiencies in our cameras are routinely 35% or higher, with per detector sensitivities of NET ∼ 300 . Thanks to the scalability of this design, we have deployed 2560 detectors as 1280 matched pairs in Keck Array with a combined instantaneous sensitivity of , as measured directly from CMB maps in the 2013 season. Similar arrays have recently flown in the Spider instrument, and development of this technology is ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Keck Array is a system of cosmic microwave background polarimeters, each similar to the Bicep2 experiment. In this paper we report results from the 2012 to 2013 observing seasons, during which the Keck Array consisted of five receivers all operating in the same (150 GHz) frequency band and observing field as Bicep2. We again find an excess of B-mode power over the lensed-ΛCDM expectation of >5σ in the range 30 < ℓ < 150 and confirm that this is not due to systematics using jackknife tests and simulations based on detailed calibration measurements. In map difference and spectral difference tests these new data are shown to be consistent with Bicep2. Finally, we combine the maps from the two experiments to produce final Q and U maps which have a depth of 57 nK deg (3.4 μK arcmin) over an effective area of 400 deg2 for an equivalent survey weight of 250,000 μK−2. The final BB band powers have noise uncertainty a factor of 2.3 times better than the previous results, and a significance of detection of excess power of >6σ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

bicep2 and the Keck Array are polarization-sensitive microwave telescopes that observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the South Pole at degree angular scales in search of a signature of inflation imprinted as B-mode polarization in the CMB. bicep2 was deployed in late 2009, observed for three years until the end of 2012 at 150 GHz with 512 antenna-coupled transition edge sensor bolometers, and has reported a detection of B-mode polarization on degree angular scales. The Keck Array was first deployed in late 2010 and will observe through 2016 with five receivers at several frequencies (95, 150, and 220 GHz). bicep2 and the Keck Array share a common optical design and employ the field-proven bicep1 strategy of using small-aperture, cold, on-axis refractive optics, providing excellent control of systematics while maintaining a large field of view. This design allows for full characterization of far-field optical performance using microwave sources on the ground. Here we describe the optical design of both instruments and report a full characterization of the optical performance and beams of bicep2 and the Keck Array at 150 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The future Ricochet experiment aims at searching for new physics in the electroweak sector by providing a high precision measurement of the Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CENNS) process down to the sub-100 eV nuclear recoil energy range. The experiment will deploy a kg-scale low-energy-threshold detector array combining Ge and Zn target crystals 8.8 m away from the 58 MW research nuclear reactor core of the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France. Currently, the Ricochet Collaboration is characterizing the backgrounds at its future experimental site in order to optimize the experiment’s shielding design. The most threatening background component, which cannot be actively rejected by particle identification, consists of keV-scale neutron-induced nuclear recoils. These initial fast neutrons are generated by the reactor core and surrounding experiments (reactogenics), and by the cosmic rays producing primary neutrons and muon-induced neutrons in the surrounding materials. In this paper, we present the Ricochet neutron background characterization using $$^3$$ 3 He proportional counters which exhibit a high sensitivity to thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons. We compare these measurements to the Ricochet Geant4 simulations to validate our reactogenic and cosmogenic neutron background estimations. Eventually, we present our estimated neutron background for the future Ricochet experiment and the resulting CENNS detection significance. Our results show that depending on the effectiveness of the muon veto, we expect a total nuclear recoil background rate between 44 ± 3 and 9 ± 2 events/day/kg in the CENNS region of interest, i.e. between 50 eV and 1 keV. We therefore found that the Ricochet experiment should reach a statistical significance of 4.6 to 13.6 $$\sigma $$ σ for the detection of CENNS after one reactor cycle, when only the limiting neutron background is considered.