English

Single frequency CMB B-mode inference with realistic foregrounds from a single training image

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2021-11-17 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

With a single training image and using wavelet phase harmonic augmentation, we present polarized Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) foreground marginalization in a high-dimensional likelihood-free (Bayesian) framework. We demonstrate robust foreground removal using only a single frequency of simulated data for a BICEP-like sky patch. Using Moment Networks we estimate the pixel-level posterior probability for the underlying {E,B} signal and validate the statistical model with a quantile-type test using the estimated marginal posterior moments. The Moment Networks use a hierarchy of U-Net convolutional neural networks. This work validates such an approach in the most difficult limiting case: pixel-level, noise-free, highly non-Gaussian dust foregrounds with a single training image at a single frequency. For a real CMB experiment, a small number of representative sky patches would provide the training data required for full cosmological inference. These results enable robust likelihood-free, simulation-based parameter and model inference for primordial B-mode detection using observed CMB polarization data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2111.01138,
  title  = {Single frequency CMB B-mode inference with realistic foregrounds from a single training image},
  author = {Niall Jeffrey and François Boulanger and Benjamin D. Wandelt and Bruno Regaldo-Saint Blancard and Erwan Allys and François Levrier},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.01138},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters. 5 pages with 3 figures (plus 1 page of Supporting Materials with 2 figures)

R2 v1 2026-06-24T07:21:29.151Z