CMB Lensing Reconstruction in Real Space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that real space estimators for CMB lensing reconstruction retain most information and are computationally faster, making them practical for maps with galactic cuts and point source excisions.

Contribution

It introduces real space quadratic estimators for CMB lensing that are local, faster, and effective despite the traditional harmonic space approach being nonlocal.

Findings

Real space estimators retain most lensing information.

Local estimators are effective near the resolution scale.

Faster implementation for maps with galactic cuts.

Abstract

We explore the reconstruction of the gravitational lensing field of the cosmic microwave background in real space showing that very little statistical information is lost when estimators of short range on the celestial sphere are used in place of the customary estimators in harmonic space, which are nonlocal and in principle require a simultaneous analysis of the entire sky without any cuts or excisions. Because virtually all the information relevant to lensing reconstruction lies on angular scales close to the resolution scale of the sky map, the gravitational lensing dilatation and shear fields (which unlike the deflection field or lensing potential are directly related to the observations in a local manner) may be reconstructed by means of quadratic combinations involving only very closely separated pixels. Even though harmonic space provides a more natural context for understanding lensing reconstruction theoretically, the real space methods developed here have the virtue of being faster to implement and are likely to prove useful for analyzing realistic maps containing a galactic cut and possibly numerous small excisions to exclude point sources that cannot be reliably subtracted.