Characterization of the Millimeter-Wave Polarization of Centaurus A with QUaD
Abstract
Centaurus (Cen) A represents one of the best candidates for an isolated, compact, highly polarized source that is bright at typical cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment frequencies. We present measurements of the 4 degree by 2 degree region centered on Cen A with QUaD, a CMB polarimeter whose absolute polarization angle is known to 0.5 degrees. Simulations are performed to assess the effect of misestimation of the instrumental parameters on the final measurement and systematic errors due to the field's background structure and temporal variability from Cen A's nuclear region are determined. The total (Q, U) of the inner lobe region is (1.00 +/- 0.07 (stat.) +/- 0.04 (sys.), -1.72 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.05) Jy at 100 GHz and (0.80 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.06, -1.40 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.08) Jy at 150 GHz, leading to polarization angles and total errors of -30.0 +/- 1.1 degrees and -29.1 +/- 1.7 degrees. These measurements will allow the use of Cen A as a polarized calibration source for future millimeter experiments.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.0908.2431,
title = {Characterization of the Millimeter-Wave Polarization of Centaurus A with QUaD},
author = {M. Zemcov and P. Ade and J. Bock and M. Bowden and M. L. Brown and G. Cahill and P. G. Castro and S. Church and T. Culverhouse and R. B. Friedman and K. Ganga and W. K. Gear and S. Gupta and J. Hinderks and J. Kovac and A. E. Lange and E. Leitch and S. J. Melhuish and Y. Memari and J. A. Murphy and A. Orlando and C. O'Sullivan and L. Piccirillo and C. Pryke and N. Rajguru and B. Rusholme and R. Schwarz and A. N. Taylor and K. L. Thompson and A. H. Turner and E. Y. S. Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2431},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
9 pages, 8 figures, v2 matches version published in ApJ