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The project CAESAR (Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS prototype Realization) is aimed to tackle all the relevant aspects of Space Weather (SWE) and realize the prototype of the scientific data centre for Space Weather of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) called ASPIS (ASI SPace Weather InfraStructure). This contribution is meant to bring attention upon the first steps in the development of the CAESAR prototype for ASPIS and will focus on the activities of the Node 2000 of CAESAR, the set of Work Packages dedicated to the technical design and implementation of the CAESAR ASPIS archive prototype. The product specifications of the intended resources that will form the archive, functional and system requirements gathered as first steps to seed the design of the prototype infrastructure, and evaluation of existing frameworks, tools and standards, will be presented as well as the status of the project in its initial stage., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, ADASS XXXII (2022) Proceedings

Gamma-Flash is an Italian project funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and led by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), devoted to the observation and study of high-energy phenomena, such as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes and gamma-ray glows produced in the Earth's atmosphere during thunderstorms. The project's detectors and the data acquisition and control system (DACS) are placed at the "O. Vittori" observatory on the top of Mt. Cimone (Italy). Another payload will be placed on an aircraft for observations of thunderstorms in the air. This work presents the architecture of the data acquisition and control system and the data flow., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and System XXXII (2022)

We present images and a multi-wavelength photometric catalog based on all of the JWST NIRCam observations obtained to date in the region of the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster. These data come from three different programs, namely the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program, UNCOVER, and Director's Discretionary Time program 2756. The observed area in the NIRCam wide-band filters - covering the central and extended regions of the cluster, as well as new parallel fields - is 46.5 arcmin$^2$ in total. All images in eight bands (F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F410M, F444W) have been reduced adopting the latest calibration and reference files available. Data reduction has been performed using an augmented version of the official JWST pipeline, with improvements aimed at removing or mitigating defects in the raw images and improving the background subtraction and photometric accuracy. We obtain a F444W-detected multi-band catalog, including all NIRCam and available HST data, adopting forced aperture photometry on PSF-matched images. The catalog is intended to enable early scientific investigations and is optimized for the study of faint galaxies; it contains 24389 sources, with a 5$\sigma$ limiting magnitude in the F444W band ranging from 28.5 AB to 30.5 AB, as a result of the varying exposure times of the surveys that observed the field. We publicly release the reduced NIRCam images, associated multi-wavelength catalog and code adopted for $1/f$ noise removal with the aim of aiding users to familiarize themselves with JWST NIRCam data and identify suitable targets for follow-up observations., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Revised analysis with updated comparisons

We report the detection of a high density of redshift $z\approx 10$ galaxies behind the foreground cluster Abell 2744, selected from imaging data obtained recently with NIRCam onboard {\it JWST} by three programs -- GLASS-JWST, UNCOVER, and DDT\#2756. To ensure robust estimates of the lensing magnification $\mu$, we use an improved version of our model that exploits the first epoch of NIRCam images and newly obtained MUSE spectra, and avoids regions with $\mu>5$ where the uncertainty may be higher. We detect seven bright $z\approx 10$ galaxies with demagnified rest-frame $-22 \lesssim M_{\rm UV}\lesssim -19$ mag, over an area of $\sim37$ sq. arcmin. Taking into account photometric incompleteness and the effects of lensing on luminosity and cosmological volume, we find that the density of $z\approx 10$ galaxies in the field is about $10\times$ ($3\times$) larger than the average at $M_{UV}\approx -21~ (-20)$ mag reported so far. The density is even higher when considering only the GLASS-JWST data, which are the deepest and the least affected by magnification and incompleteness. The GLASS-JWST field contains 5 out of 7 galaxies, distributed along an apparent filamentary structure of 2 Mpc in projected length, and includes a close pair of candidates with $M_{\rm UV}< -20$ mag having a projected separation of only 16 kpc. These findings suggest the presence of a $z\approx 10$ overdensity in the field. In addition to providing excellent targets for efficient spectroscopic follow-up observations, our study confirms the high density of bright galaxies observed in early {\it JWST} observations, but calls for multiple surveys along independent lines of sight to achieve an unbiased estimate of their average density and a first estimate of their clustering., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 13 pages, 4 figures

We present the reduced images and multi-wavelength catalog of the first JWST NIRCam extra-galactic observations from the GLASS Early Release Science Program, obtained as coordinated parallels of the NIRISS observations of the Abell 2744 cluster. Images in seven bands (F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F444W) have been reduced using an augmented version of the official JWST pipeline; we discuss the procedures adopted to remove or mitigate defects in the raw images. We obtain a multi--band catalog by means of forced aperture photometry on PSF-matched images at the position of F444W-detected sources. The catalog is intended to enable early scientific investigations, and it is optimized for faint galaxies; it contains 6368 sources, with limiting magnitude 29.7 at 5$\sigma$ in F444W. We release both images and catalog in order to allow the community to familiarize with the JWST NIRCam data and evaluate their merit and limitations given the current level of knowledge of the instrument., Comment: Submitted to ApJL; 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

We present the results of a first search for galaxy candidates at z$\sim$9--15 on deep seven-bands NIRCam imaging acquired as part of the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program on a flanking field of the Frontier Fields cluster A2744. Candidates are selected via two different renditions of the Lyman-break technique, isolating objects at z$\sim$9-11, and z$\sim$9-15, respectively, supplemented by photometric redshifts obtained with two independent codes. We find five color-selected candidates at z$>$9, plus one additional candidate with photometric redshift z$_{phot}\geq$9. In particular, we identify two bright candidates at $M_{UV}\simeq -21$ that are unambiguously placed at $z\simeq 10.6$ and $z\simeq 12.2$, respectively. The total number of galaxies discovered at $z>9$ is in line with the predictions of a non-evolving LF. The two bright ones at $z>10$ are unexpected given the survey volume, although cosmic variance and small number statistics limits general conclusions. This first search demonstrates the unique power of JWST to discover galaxies at the high redshift frontier. The candidates are ideal targets for spectroscopic follow-up in Cycle$-2$., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 11 pages, 4 figures

The last decade has brought about a profound transformation in multimessenger science. Ten years ago, facilities had been built or were under construction that would eventually discover the nature of objects in our universe could be detected through multiple messengers. Nonetheless, multimessenger science was hardly more than a dream. The rewards for our foresight were finally realized through IceCube's discovery of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux, the first observation of gravitational waves by LIGO, and the first joint detections in gravitational waves and photons and in neutrinos and photons. Today we live in the dawn of the multimessenger era. The successes of the multimessenger campaigns of the last decade have pushed multimessenger science to the forefront of priority science areas in both the particle physics and the astrophysics communities. Multimessenger science provides new methods of testing fundamental theories about the nature of matter and energy, particularly in conditions that are not reproducible on Earth. This white paper will present the science and facilities that will provide opportunities for the particle physics community renew its commitment and maintain its leadership in multimessenger science., Comment: 174 pages, 12 figures. Contribution to Snowmass 2021. Solicited white paper from CF07. Comments and endorsers welcome. Still accepting contributions (contact editors)

Gamma-rays, the most energetic photons, carry information from the far reaches of extragalactic space with minimal interaction or loss of information. They bring messages about particle acceleration in environments so extreme they cannot be reproduced on earth for a closer look. Gamma-ray astrophysics is so complementary with collider work that particle physicists and astroparticle physicists are often one in the same. Gamma-ray instruments, especially the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, have been pivotal in major multi-messenger discoveries over the past decade. There is presently a great deal of interest and scientific expertise available to push forward new technologies, to plan and build space- and ground-based gamma-ray facilities, and to build multi-messenger networks with gamma rays at their core. It is therefore concerning that before the community comes together for planning exercises again, much of that infrastructure could be lost to a lack of long-term planning for support of gamma-ray astrophysics. Gamma-rays with energies from the MeV to the EeV band are therefore central to multiwavelength and multi-messenger studies to everything from astroparticle physics with compact objects, to dark matter studies with diffuse large scale structure. These goals and new discoveries have generated a wave of new gamma-ray facility proposals and programs. This paper highlights new and proposed gamma-ray technologies and facilities that have each been designed to address specific needs in the measurement of extreme astrophysical sources that probe some of the most pressing questions in fundamental physics for the next decade. The proposed instrumentation would also address the priorities laid out in the recent Astro2020 Decadal Survey, a complementary study by the astrophysics community that provides opportunities also relevant to Snowmass., Comment: Contribution to Snowmass 2021

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

The hot gas in clusters of galaxies creates a distinctive spectral distortion in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. The spectral signature of the SZ can be used to measure the CMB temperature at cluster redshift ($T_{\rm CMB}(z)$) and to constrain the monopole of the y-type spectral distortion of the CMB spectrum. In this work, we start showing the measurements of $T_{\rm CMB}(z)$ for a sample extracted from the Second Catalog of galaxy clusters produced by Planck (PSZ2) and containing 75 clusters selected from CHEX-MATE. Then we show the forecasts for future CMB experiments about the constraints on the monopole of the y-type spectral distortion of the CMB spectrum via the spectrum of the SZE., Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the International Conference entitled "mm Universe @ NIKA2", Rome (Italy), June 2021, EPJ Web of conferences

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution., Comment: Ariel Definition Study Report, 147 pages. Reviewed by ESA Science Advisory Structure in November 2020. Original document available at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/1783156/3267291/Ariel_RedBook_Nov2020.pdf/

A great deal of experimental effort is currently being devoted to the precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky in temperature and polarisation. Satellites, balloon-borne, and ground-based experiments scrutinize the CMB sky at multiple scales, and therefore enable to investigate not only the evolution of the early Universe, but also its late-time physics with unprecedented accuracy. The pipeline leading from time ordered data as collected by the instrument to the final product is highly structured. Moreover, it has also to provide accurate estimates of statistical and systematic uncertainties connected to the specific experiment. In this paper, we review likelihood approaches targeted to the analysis of the CMB signal at different scales, and to the estimation of key cosmological parameters. We consider methods that analyze the data in the spatial (i.e., pixel-based) or harmonic domain. We highlight the most relevant aspects of each approach and compare their performance., Comment: 71 pages, 5 figures. Matching version to be published in Frontiers in Physics, section Cosmology, as a contribution to the collection "Status and Prospects of Cosmic Microwave Background Analysis"

In this paper we describe QUBIC, an experiment that will observe the polarized microwave sky with a novel approach, which combines the sensitivity of state-of-the art bolometric detectors with the systematic effects control typical of interferometers. QUBIC unique features are the so-called "self-calibration", a technique that allows us to clean the measured data from instrumental effects, and its spectral imaging power, i.e. the ability to separate the signal in various sub-bands within each frequency band. QUBIC will observe the sky in two main frequency bands: 150 GHz and 220 GHz. A technological demonstrator is currently under testing and will be deployed in Argentina during 2019, while the final instrument is expected to be installed during 2020., Comment: Proceedings of the 2018 ICNFP conference, Crete. Published by Universe arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.03730

Lensing of the CMB is now a well-developed probe of large-scale clustering over a broad range of redshifts. By exploiting the non-Gaussian imprints of lensing in the polarization of the CMB, the CORE mission can produce a clean map of the lensing deflections over nearly the full-sky. The number of high-S/N modes in this map will exceed current CMB lensing maps by a factor of 40, and the measurement will be sample-variance limited on all scales where linear theory is valid. Here, we summarise this mission product and discuss the science that it will enable. For example, the summed mass of neutrinos will be determined to an accuracy of 17 meV combining CORE lensing and CMB two-point information with contemporaneous BAO measurements, three times smaller than the minimum total mass allowed by neutrino oscillations. In the search for B-mode polarization from primordial gravitational waves with CORE, lens-induced B-modes will dominate over instrument noise, limiting constraints on the gravitational wave power spectrum amplitude. With lensing reconstructed by CORE, one can "delens" the observed polarization internally, reducing the lensing B-mode power by 60%. This improves to 70% by combining lensing and CIB measurements from CORE, reducing the error on the gravitational wave amplitude by 2.5 compared to no delensing (in the null hypothesis). Lensing measurements from CORE will allow calibration of the halo masses of the 40000 galaxy clusters that it will find, with constraints dominated by the clean polarization-based estimators. CORE can accurately remove Galactic emission from CMB maps with its 19 frequency channels. We present initial findings that show that residual Galactic foreground contamination will not be a significant source of bias for lensing power spectrum measurements with CORE. [abridged], Comment: 44 pages, 12 figures

Euclid is a Europe-led cosmology space mission dedicated to a visible and near infrared survey of the entire extra-galactic sky. Its purpose is to deepen our knowledge of the dark content of our Universe. After an overview of the Euclid mission and science, this contribution describes how the community is getting organized to face the data analysis challenges, both in software development and in operational data processing matters. It ends with a more specific account of some of the main contributions of the Swiss Science Data Center (SDC-CH)., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, IAU Symposium 325 on Astroinformatics

We forecast the scientific capabilities to improve our understanding of cosmic inflation of CORE, a proposed CMB space satellite submitted in response to the ESA fifth call for a medium-size mission opportunity. The CORE satellite will map the CMB anisotropies in temperature and polarization in 19 frequency channels spanning the range 60-600 GHz. CORE will have an aggregate noise sensitivity of $1.7 \mu$K$\cdot \,$arcmin and an angular resolution of 5' at 200 GHz. We explore the impact of telescope size and noise sensitivity on the inflation science return by making forecasts for several instrumental configurations. This study assumes that the lower and higher frequency channels suffice to remove foreground contaminations and complements other related studies of component separation and systematic effects, which will be reported in other papers of the series "Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE." We forecast the capability to determine key inflationary parameters, to lower the detection limit for the tensor-to-scalar ratio down to the $10^{-3}$ level, to chart the landscape of single field slow-roll inflationary models, to constrain the epoch of reheating, thus connecting inflation to the standard radiation-matter dominated Big Bang era, to reconstruct the primordial power spectrum, to constrain the contribution from isocurvature perturbations to the $10^{-3}$ level, to improve constraints on the cosmic string tension to a level below the presumptive GUT scale, and to improve the current measurements of primordial non-Gaussianities down to the $f_{NL}^{\rm local} < 1$ level. For all the models explored, CORE alone will improve significantly on the present constraints on the physics of inflation. Its capabilities will be further enhanced by combining with complementary future cosmological observations., Comment: Latex 107 pages, revised with updated author list and minor modifications

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with the CORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA's fifth call for medium-sized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the results from our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, in particular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great, transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assess the impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as a function of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the series focusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. In this paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels are usable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning of astrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume LCDM as our general framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over the current constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the joint sensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large Scale Structure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physics of inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to the six parameters of the base LCDM, which describe the matter content of a spatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations from inflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like those describing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial helium abundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation of fundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmic birefringence. (ABRIDGED), Comment: 90 pages, 25 Figures. Revised version with new authors list and references

(abridged) We study the impact of the large-angle CMB polarization datasets publicly released by the WMAP and Planck satellites on the estimation of cosmological parameters of the $\Lambda$CDM model. To complement large-angle polarization, we consider the high-resolution CMB datasets from either WMAP or Planck, as well as CMB lensing as traced by Planck. In the case of WMAP, we compute the large-angle polarization likelihood starting over from low-resolution frequency maps and their covariance matrices, and perform our own foreground mitigation technique, which includes as a possible alternative Planck 353 GHz data to trace polarized dust. We find that the latter choice induces a downward shift in the optical depth $\tau$, of order ~$2\sigma$, robust to the choice of the complementary high-l dataset. When the Planck 353 GHz is consistently used to minimize polarized dust emission, WMAP and Planck 70 GHz large-angle polarization data are in remarkable agreement: by combining them we find $\tau = 0.066 ^{+0.012}_{-0.013}$, again very stable against the particular choice for high-$\ell$ data. We find that the amplitude of primordial fluctuations $A_s$, notoriously degenerate with $\tau$, is the parameter second most affected by the assumptions on polarized dust removal, but the other parameters are also affected, typically between $0.5$ and $1\sigma$. In particular, cleaning dust with \planck's 353 GHz data imposes a $1\sigma$ downward shift in the value of the Hubble constant $H_0$, significantly contributing to the tension reported between CMB based and direct measurements of $H_0$. On the other hand, we find that the appearance of the so-called low $\ell$ anomaly, a well-known tension between the high- and low-resolution CMB anisotropy amplitude, is not significantly affected by the details of large-angle polarization, or by the particular high-$\ell$ dataset employed., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

In the context of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data analysis, we compare the efficiency at large scale of two angular power spectrum algorithms, implementing, respectively, the quadratic maximum likelihood (QML) estimator and the pseudo spectrum (pseudo-Cl) estimator. By exploiting 1000 realistic Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, we find that the QML approach is markedly superior in the range l=[2-100]. At the largest angular scales, e.g. l < 10, the variance of the QML is almost 1/3 (1/2) that of the pseudo-Cl, when we consider the WMAP kq85 (kq85 enlarged by 8 degrees) mask, making the pseudo spectrum estimator a very poor option. Even at multipoles l=[20-60], where pseudo-Cl methods are traditionally used to feed the CMB likelihood algorithms, we find an efficiency loss of about 20%, when we considered the WMAP kq85 mask, and of about 15% for the kq85 mask enlarged by 8 degrees. This should be taken into account when claiming accurate results based on pseudo-Cl methods. Some examples concerning typical large scale estimators are provided., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in May 2013 as a large-class mission for investigating within the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision program a set of important scientific questions that require high resolution, high sensitivity, full-sky observations of the sky emission at wavelengths ranging from millimeter-wave to the far-infrared. PRISM's main objective is to explore the distant universe, probing cosmic history from very early times until now as well as the structures, distribution of matter, and velocity flows throughout our Hubble volume. PRISM will survey the full sky in a large number of frequency bands in both intensity and polarization and will measure the absolute spectrum of sky emission more than three orders of magnitude better than COBE FIRAS. The aim of this Extended White Paper is to provide a more detailed overview of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible by PRISM, Comment: Figure 8 replaced by the correct version, affiliations of authors added, and minor changes to match the published JCAP version

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in response to the Call for White Papers for the definition of the L2 and L3 Missions in the ESA Science Programme. PRISM would have two instruments: (1) an imager with a 3.5m mirror (cooled to 4K for high performance in the far-infrared---that is, in the Wien part of the CMB blackbody spectrum), and (2) an Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) somewhat like the COBE FIRAS instrument but over three orders of magnitude more sensitive. Highlights of the new science (beyond the obvious target of B-modes from gravity waves generated during inflation) made possible by these two instruments working in tandem include: (1) the ultimate galaxy cluster survey gathering 10e6 clusters extending to large redshift and measuring their peculiar velocities and temperatures (through the kSZ effect and relativistic corrections to the classic y-distortion spectrum, respectively) (2) a detailed investigation into the nature of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) consisting of at present unresolved dusty high-z galaxies, where most of the star formation in the universe took place, (3) searching for distortions from the perfect CMB blackbody spectrum, which will probe a large number of otherwise inaccessible effects (e.g., energy release through decaying dark matter, the primordial power spectrum on very small scales where measurements today are impossible due to erasure from Silk damping and contamination from non-linear cascading of power from larger length scales). These are but a few of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible with PRISM., Comment: 20 pages Latex

We develop a method to constrain non-isotropic features of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization, of a type expected to arise in some models describing quantum gravity effects on light propagation. We describe the expected signatures of this kind of anomalous light propagation on CMB photons, showing that it will produce a non-isotropic birefringence effect, i.e. a rotation of the CMB polarization direction whose observed amount depends in a peculiar way on the observation direction. We also show that the sensitivity levels expected for CMB polarization studies by the \emph{Planck} satellite are sufficient for testing these effects if, as assumed in the quantum-gravity literature, their magnitude is set by the minute Planck length., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

Multi-wavelength observations are mandatory to understand the physical properties of astrophysical sources. In this paper we use observations in the far infrared to radio range to derive the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the Carina nebula. To do this, we carefully subtract the irregularly varying diffuse emission from the Galactic plane, which can be of the order of 10 of the nebula flux at these wavelengths. We find that the far infrared SED can be modeled as emission from a dust population with a single temperature T_d=(34.5^{+2.0}_{-1.8}), and with a spectral index of emissivity alpha=-1.37^{+0.09}_{-0.08}. We also find a total infrared luminosity of the Nebula of (7.4^{+2.5}_{-1.4})x10^6 L_{\odot} and, assuming a single temperature of the dust, a mass of the dust of (9500^{+4600}_{-3500})M_\odot., Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures. Published in ApJ. Improved study of the diffuse background emission and of the data analysis. Added a discussion concerning the discrepancy between the WMAP and the Parkes data

A large sub-mm survey with Herschel will enable many exciting science opportunities, especially in an era of wide-field optical and radio surveys and high resolution cosmic microwave background experiments. The Herschel-SPIRE Legacy Survey (HSLS), will lead to imaging data over 4000 sq. degrees at 250, 350, and 500 micron. Major Goals of HSLS are: (a) produce a catalog of 2.5 to 3 million galaxies down to 26, 27 and 33 mJy (50% completeness; 5 sigma confusion noise) at 250, 350 and 500 micron, respectively, in the southern hemisphere (3000 sq. degrees) and in an equatorial strip (1000 sq. degrees), areas which have extensive multi-wavelength coverage and are easily accessible from ALMA. Two thirds of the of the sources are expected to be at z > 1, one third at z > 2 and about a 1000 at z > 5. (b) Remove point source confusion in secondary anisotropy studies with Planck and ground-based CMB data. (c) Find at least 1200 strongly lensed bright sub-mm sources leading to a 2% test of general relativity. (d) Identify 200 proto-cluster regions at z of 2 and perform an unbiased study of the environmental dependence of star formation. (e) Perform an unbiased survey for star formation and dust at high Galactic latitude and make a census of debris disks and dust around AGB stars and white dwarfs., Comment: White paper supplement to the proposal submitted by the HSLS science team to ESA for Herschel open-time programs

Cosmic Microwave Background experiments must achieve very accurate calibration of their polarization reference frame to avoid biasing the cosmological parameters. In particular, a wrong or inaccurate calibration might mimic the presence of a gravitational wave background, or a signal from cosmological birefringence, a phenomenon characteristic of several non-standard, symmetry breaking theories of electrodynamics that allow for \textit{in vacuo} rotation if the polarization direction of the photon. Noteworthly, several authors have claimed that the BOOMERanG 2003 (B2K) published polarized power spectra of the CMB may hint at cosmological birefringence. Such analyses, however, do not take into account the reported calibration uncertainties of the BOOMERanG focal plane. We develop a formalism to include this effect and apply it to the BOOMERanG dataset, finding a cosmological rotation angle $\alpha=-4.3^\circ\pm4.1^\circ$. We also investigate the expected performances of future space borne experiment, finding that an overall miscalibration larger then $1^\circ$ for Planck and $0.2\circ$ for EPIC, if not properly taken into account, will produce a bias on the constraints on the cosmological parameters and could misleadingly suggest the presence of a GW background., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures