A new model of the microwave polarized sky for CMB experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive, flexible model of the polarized microwave sky based on Planck data, enabling realistic simulations for CMB experiments with adjustable foreground components and spectral properties.

Contribution

The authors develop a new, adaptable polarization sky model incorporating synchrotron, thermal dust, and AME foregrounds, validated against Planck and WMAP data, and suitable for high-resolution CMB simulations.

Findings

Model shows excellent agreement with Planck and WMAP data.

Allows variation of foreground spectral indices within current observational constraints.

Forecasts demonstrate utility for future high-resolution CMB experiments like COrE.

Abstract

We present a new model of the microwave sky in polarization that can be used to simulate data from CMB polarization experiments. We exploit the most recent results from the Planck satellite to provide an accurate description of the diffuse polarized foreground synchrotron and thermal dust emission. Our model can include the two mentioned foregrounds, and also a constructed template of Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME). Several options for the frequency dependence of the foregrounds can be easily selected, to reflect our uncertainties and to test the impact of different assumptions. Small angular scale features can be added to the foreground templates to simulate high-resolution observations. We present tests of the model outputs to show the excellent agreement with Planck and WMAP data. We determine the range within which the foreground spectral indices can be varied to be consistent with the current data. We also show forecasts for a high-sensitivity, high-resolution full-sky experiment such as the Cosmic ORigin Explorer (COrE). Our model is released as a python script that is quick and easy to use, available at \url{http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~chervias}.