Optimization of the half wave plate configuration for the LSPE-SWIPE experiment

TL;DR

This paper discusses optimizing the half wave plate setup in the LSPE-SWIPE experiment to improve measurements of CMB polarization, crucial for detecting primordial gravitational waves.

Contribution

It provides preliminary forecasts for HWP configuration optimization in the LSPE-SWIPE experiment to enhance B-mode polarization detection.

Findings

Optimized HWP configuration improves polarization measurement accuracy.

Forecasts indicate better systematic effect mitigation.

Enhances the experiment's sensitivity to primordial gravitational waves.

Abstract

The search for the B-mode polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the new frontier of observational Cosmology. A B-mode detection would give an ultimate confirmation to the existence of a primordial Gravitational Wave (GW) background as predicted in the inflationary scenario. Several experiments have been designed or planned to observe B-modes. In this work we focus on the forthcoming Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) experiment, that will be devoted to the accurate measurement of CMB polarization at large angular scales. LSPE consists of a balloon-borne bolometric instrument, the Short Wavelength Instrument for the Polarization Explorer (SWIPE), and a ground-based coherent polarimeter array, the STRatospheric Italian Polarimeter (STRIP). SWIPE will employ a rotating Half Wave Plate (HWP) polarization modulator to mitigate the systematic effects due to instrumental non-idealities. We present here preliminary forecasts aimed at optimizing the HWP configuration.