We studied the accuracy, robustness, and self-consistency of pixel-domain simulations of the gravitational lensing effect on the primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies due to the ...large-scale structure of the Universe. In particular, we investigated the dependence of the precision of the results precision on some crucial parameters of these techniques and propose a semi-analytic framework to determine their values so that the required precision is a priori assured and the numerical workload simultaneously optimized. Our focus was on the B-mode signal, but we also discuss other CMB observables, such as the total intensity, T, and E-mode polarization, emphasizing differences and similarities between all these cases. Our semi-analytic considerations are backed up by extensive numerical results. Those are obtained using a code, nicknamed lenS2HAT – for lensing using scalable spherical harmonic transforms (S2HAT) – which we have developed in the course of this work. The code implements a version of the previously described pixel-domain approach and permits performing the simulations at very high resolutions and data volumes, thanks to its efficient parallelization provided by the S2HAT library – a parallel library for calculating of the spherical harmonic transforms. The code is made publicly available.
Abstract We present a new, all-sky quasar catalog, Quaia, that samples the largest comoving volume of any existing spectroscopic quasar sample. The catalog draws on the 6,649,162 quasar candidates ...identified by the Gaia mission that have redshift estimates from the space observatory’s low-resolution blue photometer/red photometer spectra. This initial sample is highly homogeneous and complete, but has low purity, and 18% of even the bright ( G < 20.0) confirmed quasars have discrepant redshift estimates (∣Δ z /(1 + z )∣ > 0.2) compared to those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In this work, we combine the Gaia candidates with unWISE infrared data (based on the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer survey) to construct a catalog useful for cosmological and astrophysical quasar studies. We apply cuts based on proper motions and colors, reducing the number of contaminants by approximately four times. We improve the redshifts by training a k -Nearest Neighbor model on SDSS redshifts, and achieve estimates on the G < 20.0 sample with only 6% (10%) catastrophic errors with ∣Δ z /(1 + z )∣ > 0.2 (0.1), a reduction of approximately three times (approximately two times) compared to the Gaia redshifts. The final catalog has 1,295,502 quasars with G < 20.5, and 755,850 candidates in an even cleaner G < 20.0 sample, with accompanying rigorous selection function models. We compare Quaia to existing quasar catalogs, showing that its large effective volume makes it a highly competitive sample for cosmological large-scale structure analyses. The catalog is publicly available at 10.5281/zenodo.10403370 .
Abstract
The Simons Observatory is a ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment that consists of three 0.4 m small-aperture telescopes and one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope, located at an ...elevation of 5300 m on Cerro Toco in Chile. The Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Receiver (LATR) is the cryogenic camera that will be coupled to the Large Aperture Telescope. The resulting instrument will produce arcminute-resolution millimeter-wave maps of half the sky with unprecedented precision. The LATR is the largest cryogenic millimeter-wave camera built to date, with a diameter of 2.4 m and a length of 2.6 m. The coldest stage of the camera is cooled to 100 mK, the operating temperature of the bolometric detectors with bands centered around 27, 39, 93, 145, 225, and 280 GHz. Ultimately, the LATR will accommodate 13 40 cm diameter optics tubes, each with three detector wafers and a total of 62,000 detectors. The LATR design must simultaneously maintain the optical alignment of the system, control stray light, provide cryogenic isolation, limit thermal gradients, and minimize the time to cool the system from room temperature to 100 mK. The interplay between these competing factors poses unique challenges. We discuss the trade studies involved with the design, the final optimization, the construction, and ultimate performance of the system.
Abstract
Observing in six frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz over a large sky area, the Simons Observatory (SO) is poised to address many questions in Galactic astrophysics in addition to its ...principal cosmological goals. In this work, we provide quantitative forecasts on astrophysical parameters of interest for a range of Galactic science cases. We find that SO can: constrain the frequency spectrum of polarized dust emission at a level of Δ
β
d
≲ 0.01 and thus test models of dust composition that predict that
β
d
in polarization differs from that measured in total intensity; measure the correlation coefficient between polarized dust and synchrotron emission with a factor of two greater precision than current constraints; exclude the nonexistence of exo-Oort clouds at roughly 2.9
σ
if the true fraction is similar to the detection rate of giant planets; map more than 850 molecular clouds with at least 50 independent polarization measurements at 1 pc resolution; detect or place upper limits on the polarization fractions of CO(2–1) emission and anomalous microwave emission at the 0.1% level in select regions; and measure the correlation coefficient between optical starlight polarization and microwave polarized dust emission in 1° patches for all lines of sight with
N
H
≳ 2 × 10
20
cm
−2
. The goals and forecasts outlined here provide a roadmap for other microwave polarization experiments to expand their scientific scope via Milky Way astrophysics.
37
37
A supplement describing author contributions to this paper can be found at
https://simonsobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SO_GS_Contributions.pdf
.
Abstract
We use time-domain simulations of Jupiter observations to test and develop a beam reconstruction pipeline for the Simons Observatory Small Aperture Telescopes. The method relies on a ...mapmaker that estimates and subtracts correlated atmospheric noise and a beam fitting code designed to compensate for the bias caused by the mapmaker. We test our reconstruction performance for four different frequency bands against various algorithmic parameters, atmospheric conditions, and input beams. We additionally show the reconstruction quality as a function of the number of available observations and investigate how different calibration strategies affect the beam uncertainty. For all of the cases considered, we find good agreement between the fitted results and the input beam model within an ∼1.5% error for a multipole range
ℓ
= 30–700 and an ∼0.5% error for a multipole range
ℓ
= 50–200. We conclude by using a harmonic-domain component separation algorithm to verify that the beam reconstruction errors and biases observed in our analysis do not significantly bias the Simons Observatory
r
-measurement
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