We report on observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) obtained during the 2003 January flight of BOOMERANG. These results are derived from 195 hr of observation with four 145 GHz ...polarization-sensitive bolometer (PSB) pairs, identical in design to the four 143 GHz Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) polarized pixels. The data include 75 hr of observations distributed over 1.84% of the sky with an additional 120 hr concentrated on the central portion of the field, which represents 0.22% of the full sky. From these data we derive an estimate of the angular power spectrum of temperature fluctuations of the CMB in 24 bands over the multipole range 50 ,l,1500. A series of features, consistent with those expected from acoustic oscillations in the primordial photon-baryon fluid, are clearly evident in the power spectrum, as is the exponential damping of power on scales smaller than the photon mean free path at the epoch of last scattering (l 900). As a consistency check, the collaboration has performed two fully independent analyses of the time-ordered data, which are found to be in excellent agreement.
We present the cosmological parameters from the CMB intensity and polarization power spectra of the 2003 Antarctic flight of the BOOMERANG telescope. The BOOMERANG data alone constrain the parameters ...of the CDM model remarkably well and are consistent with constraints from a multiexperiment combined CMB data set. We add LSS data from the 2dF and SDSS redshift surveys to the combined CMB data set and test several extensions to the standard model including running of the spectral index, curvature, tensor modes, the effect of massive neutrinos, and an effective equation of state for dark energy. We also include an analysis of constraints to a model that allows a CDM isocurvature admixture.
Recent results from BOOMERANG-98 and MAXIMA-1, taken together with COBE DMR, provide consistent and high signal-to-noise measurements of the cosmic microwave background power spectrum at spherical ...harmonic multipole bands over 2<l less similar to 800. Analysis of the combined data yields 68% (95%) confidence limits on the total density, Omega(tot) approximately 1.11+/-0.07 (+0.13)(-0.12), the baryon density, Omega(b)h(2) approximately 0.032(+0.005)(-0.004) (+0.009)(-0.008), and the scalar spectral tilt, n(s) approximately 1.01(+0.09)(-0.07) (+0.17)(-0.14). These data are consistent with inflationary initial conditions for structure formation. Taken together with other cosmological observations, they imply the existence of both nonbaryonic dark matter and dark energy in the Universe.
We discuss MAXIPOL, a bolometric balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the E-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). MAXIPOL is the first bolometric CMB ...experiment to observe the sky using rapid polarization modulation. To build MAXIPOL, the CMB temperature anisotropy experiment MAXIMA was retrofitted with a rotating half-wave plate and a stationary analyzer. We describe the instrument, the observations, the calibration, and the reduction of data collected with 12 polarimeters operating at 140 GHz and with a FWHM beam size of 10. We present maps of the Q and U Stokes parameters of an 8 deg super(2) region of the sky near the star beta UMi. The power spectra computed from these maps give weak evidence for an EE signal. The maximum likelihood amplitude of is mu K super(2) (68%), and the likelihood function is asymmetric and skewed positive such that with a uniform prior the probability that the amplitude is positive is 96%. This result is consistent with the expected concordance Lambda CDM amplitude of 14 mu K super(2). The maximum likelihood amplitudes for and are - and mu K super(2) (68%), respectively, which are consistent with zero. All of the results are for one bin in the range. Tests revealed no residual systematic errors in the time or map domain. A comprehensive discussion of the analysis of the data is presented in a companion paper.
We present a measurement of the polarization-temperature angular cross power spectra, < TE > and < TB >, of the cosmic microwave background. The result is based on 6200 hr of data from eight ...polarization-sensitive bolometers operating at 145 GHz during the 2003 flight of BOOMERANG. We detect a significant < TE > correlation in the l-range between 50 and 950 with a statistical significance of >3.5 s. Contamination by polarized foreground emission and systematic effects are negligible in comparison with statistical uncertainties. The spectrum is consistent with previous detections and with the "concordance model" that assumes adiabatic initial conditions. This is the first measurement of polarization-temperature angular cross-power spectra using bolometric detectors.
The physical properties of galactic cirrus emission are not well characterized. BOOMERANG is a balloon-borne experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background at high angular resolution in ...the millimeter range. The BOOMERANG 245 and 345 GHz channels are sensitive to interstellar signals, in a spectral range intermediate between FIR and microwave frequencies. We look for physical characteristics of cirrus structures in a region at high galactic latitudes (b ~ -40°) where BOOMERANG performed its deepest integration, combining the BOOMERANG data with other available data sets at different wavelengths. We have detected eight emission patches in the 345 GHz map, consistent with cirrus dust in the Infrared Astronomical Satellite maps. The analysis technique we have developed allows us to identify the location and the shape of cirrus clouds, and to extract the flux from observations with different instruments at different wavelengths and angular resolutions. We study the integrated flux emitted from these cirrus clouds using data from Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), DIRBE, BOOMERANG and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe in the frequency range 23-3000 GHz (13 mm-100 μm wavelength). We fit the measured spectral energy distributions with a combination of a gray body and a power-law spectra considering two models for the thermal emission. The temperature of the thermal dust component varies in the 7-20 K range and its emissivity spectral index is in the 1-5 range. We identified a physical relation between temperature and spectral index as had been proposed in previous works. This technique can be proficiently used for the forthcoming Planck and Herschel missions data.
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