CAREER: Sharing Deep CMB Maps for Cosmological Discovery

了解宇宙的起源仍然是天体物理学家的首要任务，而对宇宙学的研究促进了我们对基础物理学的掌握，这反过来又导致了技术进步，加速了我们国家的经济发展。该项目专注于宇宙微波背景（CMB）极化的深层地图，为宇宙学和基础物理学提供了巨大的机会。大多数宇宙学家认为，整个可观测的宇宙是在几分之一秒内由亚核体积的超光速“膨胀”产生的。暴胀产生了宇宙引力背景（CGB），现在可以通过程度尺度CMB偏振的“b模式”模式中微弱的特征来探测到。它们的振幅直接测量了暴胀大爆炸的能量尺度。探测CGB的偏振特征可能是当今宇宙学中最重要的目标。在弧分尺度上，CMB的偏振追踪了来自高红移宇宙的引力透镜，测量了早期的暗能量和中微子质量。在它们重叠的地方，这样的测量将允许减少暴胀CGB搜索，从而更好地约束暴胀物理学。在南极进行的BICEP/SPUD系列实验为实现这一重要的科学目标采取了有针对性的策略。BICEP1给出了目前公布的关于b模暴胀的最佳上限。科瓦奇博士现在是BICEP2和SPUD数据采集、操作和分析合作项目的首席研究员。BICEP2/SPUD组合系统将其灵敏度集中在一个小的前景清洁区域，以优化对CGB的搜索。随着其他CMB极化调查在不久的将来上线，对重叠地图的联合分析的需求将会增长。鉴于b模式探测的主要意义，任何主张都需要通过独立实验之间严格的地图级比较来证实。分离极化星系发射和消除引力透镜对b模特征的贡献也需要联合使用调查。暗能量和中微子的研究以及其他科学目标激发了微波背景图与光学和射电宇宙学调查的相关性。该项目旨在共享SPUD、BICEP2、BICEP1和DASI的超深宇宙微波背景极化图。它开发和传播完整的数据产品和软件工具，以扩大这些探路调查的使用和影响，同时为其他人制定预期的有用标准，以便他们也这样做。该项目旨在获得所需的便携式数据产品和软件工具，与包括SPT在内的外部合作者在重叠地图的关键联合分析中进行测试，与整个天体物理学界共享，并鼓励独立的再分析。天体物理学团体在上述科学目标的强烈推动下进行的这种重新分析，也可能产生意想不到的发现。该项目将教育与研究相结合，直接拓宽了CMB科学的受众。该项目将基于一个非常成功的面向本科生的CMB发现实验室开发并共享一个便携式课程，该课程将在许多本科教学机构中使用。PI还将发布早期宇宙的虚拟之旅和交互式深CMB地图，这些地图可以通过世界望远镜直接成像原始引力波，这是一个基于网络的天文学可视化工具，用于公共和中学教育推广。该项目为研究生和博士后提供培训，他们将与PI在这些和其他教育和研究计划的要素上密切合作。

Understanding the origin of our Universe remains a primary quest of astrophysicists, and such studies of cosmology advance our mastery of fundamental physics, which in turn leads to technological advances that accelerate our nation's economy. This project focuses on deep maps of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization that offer tremendous opportunities for cosmology and fundamental physics. Most cosmologists believe that the entire observable Universe was spawned in a fraction of a second by the superluminal "inflation" of a subnuclear volume. Inflation produced a cosmic gravitational background (CGB) that may be detectable now via the faint signature imprinted in "B-mode" patterns of degree-scale CMB polarization. Their amplitude directly measures the energy scale of the inflationary Big Bang. Detecting the polarization signature of the CGB may be the most important goal in cosmology today. At arcminute scales CMB polarization traces gravitational lensing from the high redshift Universe, measuring early dark energy and neutrino mass. Where they overlap, such measurements will allow delensing of inflationary CGB searches, enabling better constraints of inflationary physics.The BICEP/SPUD series of experiments operating from the South Pole have pursued a targeted strategy toward this important science goal. BICEP1 produced the best current published upper limit on inflation from B-modes. Dr. Kovac is now principal investigator (PI) of the collaboration that fielded, operates, and analyzes data from BICEP2 and SPUD. The combined BICEP2/SPUD system concentrates its sensitivity on a small foreground-clean region to optimize the search for the CGB. As other CMB polarization surveys come online in the near future, demand will grow for joint analysis of overlapping maps. Given the major implications of a B-mode detection, any claim will need to be confirmed by rigorous map-level comparisons among independent experiments. Separation of polarized Galactic emission and removal of contributions of gravitational lensing to the B-mode signature also require the joint use of surveys. The study of dark energy and neutrinos and other science goals motivate correlation of CMB maps with optical and radio cosmological surveys.This project seeks to share ultra-deep CMB polarization maps from SPUD, BICEP2, BICEP1, and DASI. It develops and disseminates complete data products and software tools that broaden the use and impact of those pathfinding surveys while setting what are expected to be useful standards for others to do the same. This project aims to derive the needed portable data products and software tools, to test them in key joint analyses of overlapping maps with external collaborators including SPT, to share them with the full astrophysics community, and to encourage independent reanalysis. Such reanalysis by the astrophysics community, strongly motivated by the science goals above, may also yield unanticipated discoveries.This project integrates education with research by directly broadening the audience for CMB science. The PI will develop and share a portable curriculum based on a highly successful CMB discovery laboratory aimed at undergraduate students, which will be used across many undergraduate teaching institutions. The PI will also publish virtual tours of the early Universe and interactive deep CMB maps, which may directly image primordial gravitational waves, through the WorldWide Telescope, a web-based astronomy visualization tool used for public and secondary-school educational outreach. This project provides training for a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow who will work closely with the PI on these and other elements of the education and research plan.