Detecting and distinguishing topological defects in future data from the CMBPol satellite

TL;DR

The paper evaluates CMBPol's ability to detect and distinguish topological defects like cosmic strings and textures in the CMB, establishing detection thresholds and assessing misidentification risks.

Contribution

It quantifies detection thresholds for topological defects and analyzes the satellite's capability to differentiate between defect types and primordial gravitational waves.

Findings

Cosmic strings with 0.002 fractional contribution are detectable and distinguishable.

Textures with 0.001 fractional contribution can be detected and identified.

Tensor contributions with r=0.0018 are detectable at over 3σ significance.

Abstract

The proposed CMBPol mission will be able to detect the imprint of topological defects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provided the contribution is sufficiently strong. We quantify the detection threshold for cosmic strings and for textures, and analyse the satellite's ability to distinguish between these different types of defects. We also assess the level of danger of misidentification of a defect signature as from the wrong defect type or as an effect of primordial gravitational waves. A 0.002 fractional contribution of cosmic strings to the CMB temperature spectrum at multipole ten, and similarly a 0.001 fractional contribution of textures, can be detected and correctly identified at the 3{\sigma} level. We also confirm that a tensor contribution of r = 0.0018 can be detected at over 3{\sigma}, in agreement with the CMBpol mission concept study. These results are supported by a model selection analysis.