Detection of B-mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background with Data from the South Pole Telescope
Abstract
Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background generates a curl pattern in the observed polarization. This "B-mode" signal provides a measure of the projected mass distribution over the entire observable Universe and also acts as a contaminant for the measurement of primordial gravity-wave signals. In this Letter we present the first detection of gravitational lensing B modes, using first-season data from the polarization-sensitive receiver on the South Pole Telescope (SPTpol). We construct a template for the lensing B-mode signal by combining E-mode polarization measured by SPTpol with estimates of the lensing potential from a Herschel-SPIRE map of the cosmic infrared background. We compare this template to the B modes measured directly by SPTpol, finding a non-zero correlation at 7.7 sigma significance. The correlation has an amplitude and scale-dependence consistent with theoretical expectations, is robust with respect to analysis choices, and constitutes the first measurement of a powerful cosmological observable.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1307.5830,
title = {Detection of B-mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background with Data from the South Pole Telescope},
author = {D. Hanson and S. Hoover and A. Crites and P. A. R. Ade and K. A. Aird and J. E. Austermann and J. A. Beall and A. N. Bender and B. A. Benson and L. E. Bleem and J. J. Bock and J. E. Carlstrom and C. L. Chang and H. C. Chiang and H-M. Cho and A. Conley and T. M. Crawford and T. de Haan and M. A. Dobbs and W. Everett and J. Gallicchio and J. Gao and E. M. George and N. W. Halverson and N. Harrington and J. W. Henning and G. C. Hilton and G. P. Holder and W. L. Holzapfel and J. D. Hrubes and N. Huang and J. Hubmayr and K. D. Irwin and R. Keisler and L. Knox and A. T. Lee and E. Leitch and D. Li and C. Liang and D. Luong-Van and G. Marsden and J. J. McMahon and J. Mehl and S. S. Meyer and L. Mocanu and T. E. Montroy and T. Natoli and J. P. Nibarger and V. Novosad and S. Padin and C. Pryke and C. L. Reichardt and J. E. Ruhl and B. R. Saliwanchik and J. T. Sayre and K. K. Schaffer and B. Schulz and G. Smecher and A. A. Stark and K. Story and C. Tucker and K. Vanderlinde and J. D. Vieira and M. P. Viero and G. Wang and V. Yefremenko and O. Zahn and M. Zemcov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.5830},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
Two additional null tests, matches version published in PRL