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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Cross-correlation of the extragalactic gamma-ray background with the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect in the cosmic microwave background

Cosmic rays in galaxy clusters are unique probes of energetic processes operating with large-scale structures in the Universe. Precise measurements of cosmic rays in galaxy clusters are essential for improving our understanding of nonthermal components in the intracluster medium (ICM) as well as the accuracy of cluster mass estimates in cosmological analyses. In this paper, we perform a cross-correlation analysis with the extragalactic gamma-ray background and the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect in the cosmic microwave background. The expected cross-correlation signal would contain rich information about the cosmic-ray-induced gamma-ray emission in the most massive galaxy clusters at $\textit{z}$ ~ 0.1 – 0.2 . We analyze the gamma-ray background map with 8 years of data taken by the Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi satellite and the publicly available tSZ map by Planck. We confirm that the measured cross-correlation is consistent with a null detection, and thus it enables us to put the tightest constraint on the acceleration efficiency of cosmic-ray protons at shocks in and around galaxy clusters. In this work, we find the acceleration efficiency must be below 5% with a 2σ confidence level when the hydrostatic mass bias of clusters is assumed to be 30%, and our result is not significantly affected by the assumed value of the hydrostatic mass bias. Our constraint implies that the nonthermal cosmic-ray pressure in the ICM can introduce only a≲3% level of the hydrostatic mass bias, highlighting that cosmic rays alone do not account for the mass bias inferred by the Planck analyses. Finally, we discuss future detectability prospects of cosmic-ray-induced gamma rays from the Perseus cluster for the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Frequency-Selectable Laser Source (FLS) for Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments measure remnant radiation from the early universe and use that data to determine fundamental properties of the universe. We can constrain key parameters, such as \textit{r}, the cosmic tensor-to-scalar ratio, and $N_\text{eff}$, the effective number of relativistic species, by analyzing the CMB power spectra. Improving our measurements of the CMB requires improving our instrument systematics, one of the most important of which is detector bandpass. Current experiments use a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) to measure bandpass. However, the FTS is systematics limited, and cannot achieve the accuracy needed to make improved CMB measurements. For this reason, we are developing a new instrument, the Frequency-Selectable Laser Source (FLS) to decrease the uncertainty in bandpass by an order of magnitude. In this paper, we describe work completed to support the version 2 upgrade to the FLS. Using ray-tracing software, we modeled the FLS optics to set physical tolerances for the new design. We also discuss the laser calibration, and future work to be completed in further development of the FLS upgrade.

Rosen-Turits, Gabriel M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Frequency-Selectable Laser Source for Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments measure remnant radiation from the early universe and use that data to determine fundamental properties of the universe. We can constrain key parameters, such as \textit{r}, the cosmic tensor-to-scalar ratio, and $N_\text{eff}$, the effective number of relativistic species, by analyzing the CMB power spectra. Improving our measurements of the CMB requires improving our instrument systematics, one of the most important of which is detector bandpass. Current experiments use a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) to measure bandpass. However, the FTS is systematics limited, and cannot achieve the accuracy needed to make improved CMB measurements. For this reason, we are developing a new instrument, the Frequency-Selectable Laser Source (FLS) to decrease the uncertainty in bandpass by an order of magnitude. In this paper, we describe work completed to support the version 2 upgrade to the FLS. Using ray-tracing software, we modeled the FLS optics to set physical tolerances for the new design. We also discuss the laser calibration, and future work to be completed in further development of the FLS upgrade.

Rosen-Turits, Gabriel M. [Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: the lensing imprint of cosmic voids on the cosmic microwave background

ABSTRACT Cosmic voids gravitationally lens the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, resulting in a distinct imprint on degree scales. We use the simulated CMB lensing convergence map from the Marenostrum Institut de Ciencias de l’Espai (MICE) N-body simulation to calibrate our detection strategy for a given void definition and galaxy tracer density. We then identify cosmic voids in Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 data and stack the Planck 2015 lensing convergence map on their locations, probing the consistency of simulated and observed void lensing signals. When fixing the shape of the stacked convergence profile to that calibrated from simulations, we find imprints at the 3σ significance level for various analysis choices. The best measurement strategies based on the MICE calibration process yield S/N ≈ 4 for DES Y1, and the best-fitting amplitude recovered from the data is consistent with expectations from MICE (A ≈ 1). Given these results as well as the agreement between them and N-body simulations, we conclude that the previously reported excess integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) signal associated with cosmic voids in DES Y1 has no counterpart in the Planck CMB lensing map.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Simons Observatory: A fully remote controlled calibration system with a sparse wire grid for cosmic microwave background telescopes

For cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization observations, calibration of detector polarization angles is essential. We have developed a fully remote controlled calibration system with a sparse wire grid that reflects linearly polarized light along the wire direction. The new feature is a remote-controlled system for regular calibration, which has not been possible in sparse wire grid calibrators in past experiments. The remote control can be achieved by two electric linear actuators that load or unload the sparse wire grid into a position centered on the optical axis of a telescope between the calibration time and CMB observation. Furthermore, the sparse wire grid can be rotated by using a motor. A rotary encoder and a gravity sensor are installed on the sparse wire grid to monitor the wire direction. They allow us to achieve detector polarization angle calibration with an expected systematic error of 0.08°. The calibration system will be installed in small-aperture telescopes at Simons Observatory.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS2008

Probing Inflation via Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimetry

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has been a rich source of information about the early Universe. Detailed measurements of its spectrum and spatial distribution have helped solidify the Standard Model of Cosmology. However, many questions still remain. Standard Cosmology does not explain why the early Universe is geometrically flat, expanding, homogenous across the horizon, and riddled with a small anisotropy that provides the seed for structure formation. Inflation has been proposed as a mechanism that naturally solves these problems. In addition to solving these problems, inflation is expected to produce a spectrum of gravitational waves that will create a particular polarization pattern on the CMB. Detection of this polarized signal is a key test of inflation and will give a direct measurement of the energy scale at which inflation takes place. This polarized signature of inflation is expected to be -9 orders of magnitude below the 2.7 K monopole level of the CMB. This measurement will require good control of systematic errors, an array of many detectors having the requisite sensitivity, and a reliable method for removing polarized foregrounds, and nearly complete sky coverage. Ultimately, this measurement is likely to require a space mission. To this effect, technology and mission concept development are currently underway.

Chuss, David T.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sidelobe modeling and mitigation for a three mirror anastigmat cosmic microwave background telescope

Telescopes measuring cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization on large angular scales require exquisite control of systematic errors to ensure the fidelity of the cosmological results. In particular, far-sidelobe contamination from wide angle scattering is a potentially prominent source of systematic error for large aperture microwave telescopes. Here we describe and demonstrate a ray-tracing-based modeling technique to predict far sidelobes for a three mirror anastigmat telescope designed to observe the CMB from the South Pole. Those sidelobes are produced by light scattered in the receiver optics subsequently interacting with the walls of the surrounding telescope enclosure. After comparing simulated sidelobe maps and angular power spectra for different enclosure wall treatments, we propose a highly scattering surface that would provide more than an order of magnitude reduction in the degree-scale far-sidelobe contrast compared to a typical reflective surface. Finally, we conclude by discussing the fabrication of a prototype scattering wall panel and presenting measurements of its angular scattering profile.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2023

Sidelobe Modeling and Mitigation for A Three Mirror Anastigmat Cosmic Microwave Background Telescope

Telescopes measuring cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization on large angular scales require exquisite control of systematic errors to ensure the fidelity of the cosmological results. In particular, far-sidelobe contamination from wide angle scattering is a potentially prominent source of systematic error for large aperture microwave telescopes. Here we describe and demonstrate a ray-tracing-based modeling technique to predict far sidelobes for a three mirror anastigmat telescope designed to observe the CMB from the South Pole. Those sidelobes are produced by light scattered in the receiver optics subsequently interacting with the walls of the surrounding telescope enclosure. After comparing simulated sidelobe maps and angular power spectra for different enclosure wall treatments, we propose a highly scattering surface that would provide more than an order of magnitude reduction in the degree-scale far-sidelobe contrast compared to a typical reflective surface. We conclude by discussing the fabrication of a prototype scattering wall panel and presenting measurements of its angular scattering profile.

Ian Gullett↗
NASA NTRS1990

A preliminary measurement of the cosmic microwave background spectrum by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite

A preliminary spectrum is presented of the background radiation between 1 and 20/cm from regions near the north Galactic pole, as observed by the FIRAS instrument on the COBE satellite. The spectral resolution is 1/cm. The spectrum is well fitted by a blackbody with a temperature of 2.735 + or - 0.06 K, and the deviation from a blackbody is less than 1 percent of the peak intensity over the range 1-20/cm. These new data show no evidence for the submillimeter excess previously reported by Matsumoto et al. (1988) in the cosmic microwave background. Further analysis and additional data are expected to improve the sensitivity to deviations from a blackbody spectrum by an order of magnitude.

Mather, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Electromagnetic Design of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition-Edge Sensors for Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimetery

Observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provide a powerful tool for probing the evolution of the early universe. Specifically, precision measurement of the polarization of the CMB enables a direct test for cosmic inflation. A key technological element on the path to the measurement of this faint signal is the capability to produce large format arrays of background-limited detectors. We describe the electromagnetic design of feedhorn-coupled, TES-based sensors. Each linear orthogonal polarization from the feed horn is coupled to a superconducting microstrip line via a symmetric planar orthomode transducer (OMT). The symmetric OMT design allows for highly-symmetric beams with low cross-polarization over a wide bandwidth. In addition, this architecture enables a single microstrip filter to define the passband for each polarization. Care has been taken in the design to eliminate stray coupling paths to the absorbers. These detectors will be fielded in the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS).

Chuss, David T.↗
NASA NTRS1989

The effect of hot gas in early-type galaxies on the cosmic microwave background

The effects on the cosmic microwave background which are due to Compton scattering by the hot gas contained in early-type galaxies (the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect) are computed. Using the known properties of the gas deduced from X-ray observations, it is found that the fractional attenuation DeltaT/T at the center of a gas-rich galaxy is likely to be less than 10 to the -5th, which is just below current limits of detectability. A distribution function is derived for the attenuation which is due to a population of early-type galaxies out to some redshift and the expected rms fluctuations in the background on subarcmin scales are computed. These fluctuations are comparable to those intrinsic to the microwave background in the 'cold dark matter' scenario on these angular scales, but they fall orders of magnitude below the detection limits and below the level of fluctuations expected from nonlinear density perturbations at the epoch of galaxy formation.

Trester, Jeffrey J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Cosmic Microwave Background: COBE and WMAP

The cosmic microwave background has proved to be an extremely useful tool for cosmology. I will discuss NASA's COBE and WMAP missions and their contributions to modern precision cosmology.

Kogut, alan↗
NASA NTRS1994

Cosmic microwave background anisotropies in cold dark matter models with cosmological constant: The intermediate versus large angular scales

We obtain predictions for cosmic microwave background anisotropies at angular scales near 1 deg in the context of cold dark matter models with a nonzero cosmological constant, normalized to the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) detection. The results are compared to those computed in the matter-dominated models. We show that the coherence length of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy is almost insensitive to cosmological parameters, and the rms amplitude of the anisotropy increases moderately with decreasing total matter density, while being most sensitive to the baryon abundance. We apply these results in the statistical analysis of the published data from the UCSB South Pole (SP) experiment (Gaier et al. 1992; Schuster et al. 1993). We reject most of the Cold Dark Matter (CDM)-Lambda models at the 95% confidence level when both SP scans are simulated together (although the combined data set renders less stringent limits than the Gaier et al. data alone). However, the Schuster et al. data considered alone as well as the results of some other recent experiments (MAX, MSAM, Saskatoon), suggest that typical temperature fluctuations on degree scales may be larger than is indicated by the Gaier et al. scan. If so, CDM-Lambda models may indeed provide, from a point of view of CMB anisotropies, an acceptable alternative to flat CDM models.

Stompor, Radoslaw↗
DOE OSTI2025

Impact and mitigation of polarized extragalactic foregrounds on Bayesian cosmic microwave background lensing

Future low-noise cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing measurements from e.g., CMB-S4 will be polarization dominated, rather than temperature dominated. In this new regime, statistically optimal lensing reconstructions outperform the standard quadratic estimator, but their sensitivity to extragalactic polarized foregrounds has not been quantified. Using realistic simulations of polarized radio and infrared point sources, we show for the first time that optimal Bayesian lensing from a CMB-S4-like experiment is insensitive to the expected level of polarized extragalactic foregrounds after masking, as long as an accurate foreground power spectrum is included in the analysis. For more futuristic experiments where these foregrounds could cause a detectable bias, we propose a new method to jointly fit for lensing and the Poisson foregrounds, generalizing the bias hardening from the standard quadratic estimator to Bayesian lensing.

cosmic microwave background↗
NASA NTRS2000

Dark energy and the cosmic microwave background radiation

We find that current cosmic microwave background anisotropy data strongly constrain the mean spatial curvature of the Universe to be near zero, or, equivalently, the total energy density to be near critical-as predicted by inflation. This result is robust to editing of data sets, and variation of other cosmological parameters (totaling seven, including a cosmological constant). Other lines of argument indicate that the energy density of nonrelativistic matter is much less than critical. Together, these results are evidence, independent of supernovae data, for dark energy in the Universe.

Microwaves↗
DOE OSTI2024

Small-correlated-against-large estimator for the lensing of the cosmic microwave background

Weak gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) carries imprints of the physics operating at redshifts much lower than that of recombination and serves as an important probe of cosmological structure formation, dark matter physics, and the mass of neutrinos. Reconstruction of the CMB lensing deflection field through use of quadratic estimators has proven successful with existing data but is known to be sub-optimal on small angular scales ($\ell > 3000$) for experiments with low noise levels. Future experiments will provide better observations in this regime, but these techniques will remain statistically limited by their approximations. We show that correlations between fluctuations of the large-scale temperature gradient power of the CMB sourced by $\ell < 2000$, and fluctuations of the local small-scale temperature power reveal a lensing signal which is prominent in even the real-space pixel statistics across a CMB temperature map. We present the development of the Small Correlated Against Large Estimator (SCALE), a novel estimator for the CMB lensing spectrum which offers promising complementary analysis alongside other reconstruction techniques in this regime. The SCALE method computes correlations between both the large/small-scale temperature gradient power in harmonic space, and it is able to quantitatively recover unbiased statistics of the CMB lensing field without the need for map-level reconstruction. SCALE can outperform quadratic estimator signal-to-noise by a factor of up to 1.5 in current and upcoming experiments for CMB lensing power spectra $C_{6000 < L < 8000}^{\phi\phi}$.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS2015

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Characterization of the minute cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization signature requires multi-frequency high-throughput precision instrument systems. We have previously described the detector fabrication of a 40 gigahertz focal plane and now describe the fabrication of a 37-element dual-polarization detector module for measurement of the CMB at 90 gigahertz. The 72-TES (Transition Edge Sensor)-based bolometers in each module are coupled to a niobium-based planar orthomode transducer with integrated band defining filters implemented in microstrip transmission line. A single crystal silicon dielectric substrate serves as microstrip dielectric and as a thermal link between the membrane isolated MoAu TES operating at 150 millikelvins and the heat bath. A short silicon leg between the heat bath and the TES bolometer is designed for ballistic phonon transport and provides improved process control and uniformity of thermal conductance in the presence of phonon scattering on roughened surfaces. Micro-machined structures are used to realize the orthomode transducer backshort, provide out of band signal rejection, and a silicon photonic choke for feedhorn coupling are described. The backshort, choke wafer, and detector wafer are indium bump-bonded to create a single 37-element dual-polarization detector module. Fourteen such hexagonally shaped modules each 80 millimeters in size comprise two focal planes. These, along with the recently delivered 40 gigahertz focal plane, will survey a large fraction of the sky as part of the Johns Hopkins University-led ground-based CLASS (Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor) telescope.

Detectors↗
NASA NTRS2015

Fabrication of Feedhorn-Coupled Transition Edge Sensor Arrays for Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Characterization of the minute cosmic microwave background polarization signature requires multi-frequency high-throughput precision instrument systems. We have previously described the detector fabrication of a 40 GHz focal plane and now describe the fabrication of the detector modules for measurement of the CMB at 90GHz. The 74-TES based bolometers in each module are coupled to a niobium based planar orthomode transducer with integrated band defining filters implemented in microstrip transmission line. A single crystal silicon dielectric substrate serves as microstrip dielectric and as a thermal link between the membrane isolated MoAu TES operating at 150mK and the heat bath. A short silicon leg between the heat bath and the TES bolometer is designed for ballistic phonon transport and provides improved process control and uniformity of thermal conductance in the presence of phonon scattering on roughened surfaces. Micro-machined structures are used to realize the orthomode transducer backshort, provide out of band signal rejection, and a silicon photonic choke for feedhorn coupling are described. The backshort, choke wafer, and detector wafer are indium bump bonded to create a single 37-element dual-polarization detector module. Fourteen such hexagonally shaped modules each 90 mm in size comprise two focal planes. These, along with the recently delivered 40GHz focal plane, will survey a large fraction of the sky as part of the Johns Hopkins University led ground based CLASS (Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor) telescope.

Characterization↗