We present a method of cross-calibrating the polarization angle of a polarimeter using BICEP Galactic observations. \bicep\ was a ground based experiment using an array of 49 pairs of polarization sensitive bolometers observing from the geographic South Pole at 100 and 150 GHz. The BICEP polarimeter is calibrated to +/-0.01 in cross-polarization and less than +/-0.7 degrees in absolute polarization orientation. BICEP observed the temperature and polarization of the Galactic plane (R.A= 100 degrees ~ 270 degrees and Dec. = -67 degrees ~ -48 degrees). We show that the statistical error in the 100 GHz BICEP Galaxy map can constrain the polarization angle offset of WMAP Wband to 0.6 degrees +\- 1.4 degrees. The expected 1 sigma errors on the polarization angle cross-calibration for Planck or EPIC are 1.3 degrees and 0.3 degrees at 100 and 150 GHz, respectively. We also discuss the expected improvement of the BICEP Galactic field observations with forthcoming BICEP2 and Keck observations.
@article{arxiv.1007.2874,
title = {Absolute polarization angle calibration using polarized diffuse Galactic emission observed by BICEP},
author = {Tomotake Matsumura and Peter Ade and Denis Barkats and Darcy Barron and John O. Battle and Evan M. Bierman and James J. Bock and H. Cynthia Chiang and Brendan P. Crill and C. Darren Dowell and Lionel Duband and Eric F. Hivon and William L. Holzapfel and Viktor V. Hristov and William C. Jones and Brian G. Keating and John M. Kovac and Chao-Lin Kuo and Andrew E. Lange and Erik M. Leitch and Peter V. Mason and Hien T. Nguyen and Nicolas Ponthieu and Clem Pryke and Steffen Richter and Graca M. Rocha and Yuki D. Takahashi and Ki Won Yoon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1007.2874},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
13 pages, 10 figures and 2 tables. To appear in Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010