Absolute polarization angle calibration using polarized diffuse Galactic emission observed by BICEP

• Published in: SPIE Proceedings, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V
• Main Authors: Matsumura, Tomotake, Bock, James J., Crill, Brendan P., Dowell, C. Darren, Hristov, Viktor V., Lange, Andrew E., Mason, Peter V., Richter, Steffen
• Other Authors: Holland, Wayne S., Zmuidzinas, Jonas
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 2010
• Subjects: cosmic microwave background polarization; millimeter wave; calibration source; polarized galactic emission; polarization calibration; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856855

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° in absolute polarization orientation. Bicep observed the temperature and polarization of the Galactic plane (R.A = 100° ~ 270° and Dec. = -67° ~ -48°). We show that the statistical error in the 100 GHz Bicep Galaxy map can constrain the polarization angle offset of Wmap W band to 0.6° ± 1.4°. The expected 1σ errors on the polarization angle cross-calibration for Planck or EPIC are 1.3° and 0.3° at 100 and 150 GHz, respectively. We also discuss the expected improvement of the Bicep Galactic field observations with forthcoming Bicep2 and Keck observations. © 2010 SPIE. Published - Matsumura2010p12887Adaptive_Optics_Systems_Pts_1-3.pdf