Review of Radio Frequency Interference and Potential Impacts on the CMB-S4 Cosmic Microwave Background Survey

TL;DR

CMB-S4 aims to map the cosmic microwave background with unprecedented sensitivity, but faces challenges from radio frequency interference due to broad spectrum use, requiring models and mitigation strategies to preserve survey quality.

Contribution

This paper reviews RFI sources, models interference mechanisms, and discusses mitigation strategies specific to the CMB-S4 experiment, highlighting challenges in protecting sensitive measurements.

Findings

RFI can significantly impact CMB-S4 sensitivity if not properly mitigated.

Models of interference help in designing effective mitigation strategies.

Site selection and spectrum management are crucial for minimizing RFI effects.

Abstract

CMB-S4 will map the cosmic microwave background to unprecedented precision, while simultaneously surveying the millimeter-wave time-domain sky, in order to advance our understanding of cosmology and the universe. CMB-S4 will observe from two sites, the South Pole and the Atacama Desert of Chile. A combination of small- and large-aperture telescopes with hundreds of thousands of polarization-sensitive detectors will observe in several frequency bands from 20-300 GHz, surveying more than 50 percent of the sky to arcminute resolution with unprecedented sensitivity. CMB-S4 seeks to make a dramatic leap in sensitivity while observing across a broad range of largely unprotected spectrum which is increasingly being utilized for terrestrial and satellite transmissions. Fundamental aspects of CMB instrument technology leave them vulnerable to radio frequency interference (RFI) across a wide range of frequencies, including frequencies outside of their observing bands. Ground-based CMB instruments achieve their extraordinary sensitivities by deploying large focal planes of superconducting bolometers to extremely dry, high-altitude sites, with large fractional bandwidths, wide fields of view, and years of integration time. Suitable observing sites have historically offered significant protection from RFI, both naturally through their extremely remote locations as well as through restrictions on local emissions. Since the coupling mechanisms are complex, safe levels or frequencies of emission that would not interfere with CMB measurements cannot always be determined through straightforward calculations. We discuss models of interference for various types of RFI relevant to CMB-S4, mitigation strategies, and the potential impacts on survey sensitivity.