CM5 - Present and future of CMB observations |
|
Speaker |
MONTIER, Ludovic |
|
Coauthors |
The LiteBIRD collaboration |
| Talk Title |
LiteBIRD and the quest of the primordial gravitational waves |
|
Abstract |
Cosmic Inflation presently provides the most satisfying theoretical framework for explaining our present Universe through New Physics at energy scales far beyond those of the Standard Model. However, an observational confirmation of this remarkable prediction is as yet lacking. On the time scale of the forthcoming decade, the LiteBIRD satellite will be uniquely positioned to achieve this goal, capitalizing on the extremely stable environment at the Sun-Earth L2 point, its exquisite instrumental sensitivity, and its control of systematic errors. LiteBIRD is a CMB observatory that will provide essential clues about the birth of the Universe at a time approximately $10^{-35}$~sec after the putative Big Bang. It will probe the primordial universe through ultra-precise measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies on intermediate and large angular scales. This will permit a measurement with unprecedented precision of the B-mode polarization amplitude, thus testing the unique prediction of Cosmic Inflation that the already well mapped scalar cosmological perturbations were accompanied by a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves. The LiteBIRD satellite is a strategic L-Class mission from JAXA, within an international collaboration with US and Europe. It will observe the full sky in 15 frequency bands spanning from $34$\,GHz to $448$\,GHz and employ state-of-the-art kilo-pixel arrays of multichroic detectors with multiple modulations of the polarized signal obtained through an advanced scanning strategy and a continuously rotating polarization modulator (HWP). The resolution of LiteBIRD will range from $20'$ to $70'$ for the highest and lowest frequency channels, respectively. These features ensure sufficient redundancy, frequency coverage, and systematic effect control, permitting reaching a sensitivity on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ on the order of $10^{-3}$. |
|
Talk view |
|
|
|
|