Impact of Dust on Spectral Distortion Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background. (arXiv:2010.06589v2 [astro-ph.CO] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Zelko_I/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ioana A. Zelko</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Finkbeiner_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Douglas P. Finkbeiner</a>
Spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are sensitive
to energy injection by exotic physics in the early universe. The proposed
Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) mission has the raw sensitivity to
provide meaningful limits on new physics, but only if foreground emission can
be adequately modeled. We quantify the impact of interstellar dust on Compton
$y$ and $mu$ measurements by considering a range of grain size distributions
and compositions constrained by theoretical and observational priors (Zelko &
Finkbeiner 2020). We find that PIXIE can marginalize over a modest number of
dust parameters and still recover $y$ and $mu$ estimates, though with
increased uncertainty. As more foreground components are included (synchrotron,
free-free), the estimates of $y$ degrade, and measurement of $mu$ in the range
sometimes considered for the standard $Lambda$CDM of $2times10^{-8}$ becomes
infeasible without ancillary low-frequency foreground information. An
additional concern is dust absorption of the CMB monopole, a subtle effect that
must be included. We quantify one form of model discrepancy error, finding that
the error introduced by fitting our interstellar medium dust model with a
modified blackbody is too large for CMB spectral distortions to be detectable.
The greatest challenge may be the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We find
that $mu$ and $y$ are extremely sensitive to modeling choices for the CIB, and
quantify biases expected for a range of assumptions.
Spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are sensitive
to energy injection by exotic physics in the early universe. The proposed
Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) mission has the raw sensitivity to
provide meaningful limits on new physics, but only if foreground emission can
be adequately modeled. We quantify the impact of interstellar dust on Compton
$y$ and $mu$ measurements by considering a range of grain size distributions
and compositions constrained by theoretical and observational priors (Zelko &
Finkbeiner 2020). We find that PIXIE can marginalize over a modest number of
dust parameters and still recover $y$ and $mu$ estimates, though with
increased uncertainty. As more foreground components are included (synchrotron,
free-free), the estimates of $y$ degrade, and measurement of $mu$ in the range
sometimes considered for the standard $Lambda$CDM of $2times10^{-8}$ becomes
infeasible without ancillary low-frequency foreground information. An
additional concern is dust absorption of the CMB monopole, a subtle effect that
must be included. We quantify one form of model discrepancy error, finding that
the error introduced by fitting our interstellar medium dust model with a
modified blackbody is too large for CMB spectral distortions to be detectable.
The greatest challenge may be the cosmic infrared background (CIB). We find
that $mu$ and $y$ are extremely sensitive to modeling choices for the CIB, and
quantify biases expected for a range of assumptions.
http://arxiv.org/icons/sfx.gif
