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CoreProposal Final PDF
CoreProposal Final PDF
National coordinators:
F. R. Bouchet (FR), P. de Bernardis (IT), B. Maffei (UK), E. Martinez-Gonzalez (SP)
We propose COrE , the Cosmic Origins Explorer, a Class M space mission whose aim is to deliver
high precision, reference-quality, full-sky maps of the polarized microwave and sub-mm sky in 15
bands ranging from 45 GHz to 795 GHz. Polarization maps in this frequency range will enable an
unprecedented exploration of Cosmic Origins—from the origins of stars and the origin of cosmic
structure to the origin of the Universe itself.
Owing to COrE ’s exquisite polarization sensitivity, systematics control, and foreground separation
capabilities, COrE will: improve sensitivity to the B-mode signal of primordial gravitational
waves by two orders of magnitude; vastly increase the number of resolved modes available to probe
the cosmological initial conditions, allow an unprecedented probe of non-Gaussianity and
thus either detect or rule out the presence of non-linear physics during inflation or in a pre-Big
Bang epoch; and measure neutrino masses to sufficient precision to distinguish the direct from
the inverted neutrino hierarchies.
At the higher frequencies COrE will observe all-sky polarization maps for the first time. These
maps will uncover the role played by magnetic fields in star formation; revolutionize our picture
of the three-dimensional galactic magnetic field and of the properties of interstellar dust;
determine directly the initial conditions for star formation in the diffuse ISM; and discover,
characterize and time-resolve a large number of new polarized galactic and extragalactic
point sources.
COrE builds on the success of Planck/Herschel both in terms of hardware and software/science, reusing
many of the subsystems and methods developed by the mm/submm community. In its study of the cosmic
microwave background anisotropies, COrE ’s polarization maps will be of comparable or better quality than
the temperature maps that are being delivered by Planck in spite of the considerably weaker polarization
signal. COrE will achieve this with comparable angular resolution and frequency coverage, but twice the
frequency resolution and more than 30 times higher sensitivity than Planck . This improvement is made
possible by a massive increase in the number of detectors, from 63 to 6384, operating almost at the photon
shot noise limit, as well as from improved detector technology and a longer mission duration. One of the
lessons of Planck concerns the abundance of cosmic rays at L2, which would make it hazardous to bank on
building much more sensitive detectors behind a colder telescope. Of course, sensitivity to cosmic rays will
be part of the criteria we shall use in the detailed definition phase for selecting the final detector arrays
set-up. COrE ’s raw sensitivity will be matched by a system-wide approach to reject systematic errors. This
concern is actually the primary driver of the selected overall design. Rather than measuring polarization by
subtracting two linearly polarized intensities from different detectors as in Planck , which introduces errors by
aliasing temperature anisotropies into a spurious polarization signal, COrE will modulate the polarization
signal by using a rotating half-wave plate as the first element of the optical path from the sky to the
detector horns. This allows polarization to be measured directly on a short time scale and rejects spurious
polarization that is inevitably to some extent introduced inside the telescope/detector system.
In the area of Early Universe science, COrE will search for primordial gravitational waves, predicted from
cosmic inflation but not yet seen, by searching for a B mode of the CMB polarization of primordial origin.
Simulations demonstrate that COrE ’s sensitivity and foreground rejection capabilities will lower the limits
on the tensor-to-scalar ratio (T /S) by approximately two orders of magnitude, from the T /S ≈ 0.1 detection
threshold anticipated from Planck to 0.001! In addition to providing a confirmation of inflation by verifying
its most stunning and non-trivial prediction, a positive detection of B modes of primordial origin would
establish the energy scale of inflation, which cannot be determined from observing the scalar anisotropies
alone. There exist broad classes of models in this range. A negative result, likewise, would rule out large
classes of models and provide invaluable constrains for string theory model building by probing energies near
the Planck scale.
In a complementary way to probing primordial gravitational waves, COrE ’s temperature and polarization
maps offer the prospect of dramatic new insights into fundamental physics and possible signals from the
epoch of quantum gravity through the window of non-Gaussianity. The temperature and polarization maps
delivered by COrE will enable it to distinguish between non-Gaussian fingerprints from a range of processes
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in acting during the Big Bang or in a pre-Big Bang phase. This fingerprinting capability sets it apart from
all other projected probes of non-Gaussianity. This exploration may reveal the action of multiple fields when
the seeds of cosmic structure were produced (“local” NG); non-canonical kinetic energy (“equilateral” NG);
remnants of a pre-inflationary phase (“flattened NG”); cosmic (super-)strings; a contracting phase with a
subsequent bounce; and even signatures of dark energy imprinted by cosmic structure in the late Universe.
Another key science objective is to reconstruct the gravitational lensing deflection field and measure its
power spectrum to cosmic-variance limits on all scales where linear perturbation theory is reliable. While
Planck will be able to make rudimentary measurements of the lensing spectrum using the temperature maps,
high-resolution polarization maps with low instrument noise can give a vastly superior reconstruction by
eliminating most of the intrinsic fluctuations as a source of statistical noise. Through lensing reconstruction,
COrE will be able to probe sub-eV neutrino masses and the dark energy sector in a way that is impossible
with the primary anisotropies alone. For example, the summed neutrino mass will be measured to 0.03 eV.
Measurements of neutrino oscillations establish lower bounds on neutrino masses and suggest two possible
hierarchies for the neutrino masses, a normal and an inverted hierarchy. In both of these, COrE data
alone will determine the lightest mass to 0.04 eV (95% confidence) — a sensitivity that cannot be reached
with laboratory experiments. Moreover, COrE could distinguish the inverted hierarchy from three massless
neutrinos at 3 σ.
In the area of galactic science, COrE will probe the galactic magnetic field in diffuse regions, allowing us
to establish the initial conditions for star formation and probe the physics of the interstellar medium. COrE
will measure both dust and synchrotron intensity and polarization. The accuracy of COrE information
will provide a unique opportunity to test magneto-hydrodynamical models and the impact of the magnetic
field on the interstellar medium energetics, and the interplay between turbulence and magnetic field. COrE
will be the first instrument with the combination of sensitivity and resolution needed to map the Galactic
magnetic field down to the sub-parsec scales where pre-stellar cores are formed. The inefficiency of star-
formation is still an open question: how and when does gravity overcome thermal, turbulence and magnetic
pressure, starting star formation, needs to be tested with high sensitivity and resolution data that only
COrE can provide. The survey from COrE at large scales will provide important new clues to the effects
of the Galactic magnetic field in supporting the diffuse medium in the Galactic gravitational potential and
in confining cosmic rays in the disk, providing stronger constrains on current dynamo scenarios. The many-
frequencies survey of COrE will open a new dimension to our understanding of interstellar dust nature and
evolution, and of the underlying physical mechanisms processing dust grains in the ISM. COrE data will
also be used to disentangle if the Galactic Center “hazes” detected by WMAP and Fermi are due to dark
matter annihilation or to astrophysical mechanisms at the Galactic Center: the two models, in fact, predict
different polarization properties for the haze, which can be measured very accurately with COrE .
COrE cosmology science will require accurate foreground removal and a very good assessment of the
relevant potential error. COrE is designed to generate itself all the data needed for that, in particular
by a large complement of relatively narrow spectral bands. Using all available information as of now, as
summarized in Planck Sky Model, simulations were done and analyzed using state-of-the-art component
separation algorithms. They provide confidence that COrE will acquire the multi-component data necessary
in order to achieve its science objectives with some margin for error and redundancy for verifying its results.
All this science and more will be produced by the exploitation of the main legacy product of COrE
full-sky maps of the three Stokes parameters I,Q,U, at 15 frequencies, i.e. 45 maps of incredible sensitivity,
providing a data mine for decades afterwards.
The mission has been endorsed by the Italian Space Agency ASI and by the French Space Agency CNES.
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Contents
1 Science with COrE 3
2 From science requirements to mission design 15
3 Mission profile proposed to achieve these objectives 18
4 Model payload to achieve the science objectives 20
5 Technology development requirements 29
6 System requirements and spacecraft key factors 31
7 Science operations and archiving 34
8 Programmatic and cost analysis 36
9 Communication and Outreach 38
10 Selected references 39
3
TT,scalar
with the scalar perturbations and cosmological parameters implicit from the temperature perturbations.
Polarization provides a powerful cross check because it probes the other of the two quadratures of the
cosmological perturbations.
The frontier of CMB polarization observations lies in searching for the B mode. The polarization field
on the celestial sphere may be divided into two components: an E mode, which may be expressed by means
of second derivatives acting on a potential, and a B mode where this pattern is rotated by 45◦ . For scalar
perturbations, which are the only ones that contribute to the matter power spectrum, only the E mode
polarization is possible within linearized cosmological perturbation theory. Nonlinear corrections, which
may be calculated reliably, contribute a gravitational lensing background (shown in red in the figure) having
a white noise spectrum at low multipole number `. This ‘white noise’ at low ` has a magnitude of around
5µK · arcmin, the precise value depending slightly on cosmological parameters. Any B mode with a black
body spectrum beyond the level expected from lensing is the tell-tale sign of primordial gravitational waves
from inflation, whose multipole spectral shape predictions are shown in Fig. 1 alongside the predictions for
the scalar anisotropies, shown in green. The expected B-mode anisotropies from inflation is parameterized
by the ratio of the primordial tensor perturbations relative to the scalar perturbations (T /S) or r.
The current COrE concept does not attempt to ‘clean’ the gravitational lensing B mode, but rather
accepts it as a background that can be well characterized and included in the analysis in the same way as
one typically deals with instrument noise in CMB experiments. Hence science requirement is to deliver a
foreground cleaned map with an accuracy in the neighborhood or slightly better than 5µK · arcmin after
foreground subtraction. This requires a superior raw sensitivity in order to clean out the foregrounds.
The so-called “foregrounds” may, on the one hand, be considered a nuisance for primordial cosmology.
They are the ‘dirt’ that must be removed to gain a glimpse at the pristine state of the primordial universe.
But on the other hand, these foregrounds, which will be characterized with exquisite precision, constitute a
gold mine for galactic and extragalactic science. In particular, the dust polarization maps produced, when
combined with 21cm maps to provide depth information, can be used to gain a better understanding of the
galactic magnetic field, which according to equipartition arguments plays a key role in the dynamics of the
interstellar medium. Numerous extragalactic polarized point sources will be discovered as well.
The following sections describe in more detail some of the highlights of the new science that one will be
able to do with COrE and formulate the science requirements for the COrE instrument. Then the following
sections describe the instrument proposed to satisfy these science goals. Additional information and details
as well as a bibliography are available on the website : wwww.core-mission.org.
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COrE will be competing with suborbital experiments likewise aiming to detect non-zero (T /S) and carry
out other components of the science program presented here. Suborbital experiments have indeed played
and will continue to play an important role is developing and demonstrating new technology for space-based
CMB observation. Nevertheless, suborbital experiment are substantially handicapped in a number of ways
that are analyzed in detail in the section Why Space? below.
1.1 Detecting gravitational waves from inflation: the quest for B-modes
One of the striking developments of the past few decades is the theory of cosmic inflation. There is compelling
evidence that the universe underwent a period of very rapid expansion at very early times. As a result of
inflation, the universe ended up in a special, almost perfectly homogeneous state with a spatial geometry
which is almost exactly Euclidean. Quantum fluctuations of the space-time fabric during inflation will
have led to the formation of the cosmic web of matter structures and of gravitational waves. Inflation has
been extraordinarily successful when confronted with the new spate of high quality cosmological data, most
notably the WMAP data and we are clearly at the cusp of understanding the workings of the early Universe.
The temperature and polarization of the CMB are the observables of choice for achieving this goal.
The simplest model of inflation is based on a single scalar field φ having a potential V (φ). The energy
and pressure of the scalar field drive the expansion of the universe according to the Einstein equations.
For inflationary expansion we take the pressure and density such that p ≈ −ρ ≈ −V (φ) and find that
the expansion accelerates, with the scale factor a(t), evolving as a(t) ∝ eHt where the Hubble constant,
H ≡ ȧ/a evolves as H 2 = (8πG/3)V . Scalar perturbations arising from inflation imprint irregularities in
the energy density of the Universe with an amplitude AS that depends on the wave number k, characterized
by a scalar spectral index nS ≡ 1 + d ln A2S (k)/d ln k. Both AS and nS depend on V , V 0 and V 00 . The
spectrum of density perturbations is almost, but not exactly, scale invariant, with nS ≈ 1. Inflation also
generates tensor perturbations, transverse traceless perturbations in the metric of space time that are called
gravitational waves, with an amplitude AT (k). The relative contribution of gravity waves to curvature
perturbations is given by the tensor-to-scalar ratio r = (T /S) ≡ 16(AT /AS )2 ≈ 8MP2 l (V 0 /V )2 . Using
the COBE normalization AS = 1.91 × 10−5 , we find that V 1/4 = 3.3 × 1016 (T /S)1/4 GeV. Hence a
measurement of (T /S) directly probes the energy scale of inflation and is a window onto the
early Universe.
There is a vast range of models of inflation. Single-field inflation satisfies a simple relation ∆φ/MPl '
(r/0.01)1/2 where ∆φ is the scale of variation in the inflaton field. For such models, for example for chaotic
inflation, large variations are required if they are to be detected. Small-field inflation models may be
constrained more effectively by the measurements of nS . String theory contains an abundance of light scalar
fields which may be responsible for inflation. Examples are the hybrid inflation models which involve two or
more scalar fields, the so-called curvaton model of multi-field inflation which can boost the value of r and
other candidates with non-standard kinetic terms in the Lagrangian leading to Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation.
The panorama of inflationary models is clearly vast and intricate. Yet it is possible, given current
cosmological constraints, to forecast the expected amplitude of r for specific classes of models. We do so
in the left hand plot in Fig. 2, where we consider power law, chaotic (where the potential is of the form
V (φ) ' φp ) and spontaneous symmetry breaking inflationary models and find current constraints on r and
nS . A more ambitious, models-independent approach is taken in the right hand plot of Fig. 2, which shows
extracts from a two million point Monte-Carlo simulation of the inflationary flow equations. In essence
one constructs a hierarchy of flow equations that should encapsulate all models of inflation which can be
constructed as effective field theories. The results do not depend strongly on choices of prior ranges once
known observational constraints (on ns and dns /d ln k) are imposed, leading to somewhat model-independent
constraints on r. While the results from these simulations cannot be interpreted in a statistical way, they show
that models do not cover the observable parameter space uniformly and they show significant concentrations
of points with significant tensor/scalar ratio, as can be seen in the middle panel of Fig. 2. It is therefore
clear that r ∼ 10−3 is a natural target for a CMB polarization experiment.
A Fisher forecast of the ability to constrain r and nS was carried out using the power spectra determi-
nation errors obtained from two independent component separation simulations based on the Planck Sky
Model and the COrE instrument specifications, as described further below. The two approaches yield very
similar results, offering an encouraging cross check. We find that (T /S) = 1 × 10−3 can be distinguished
from 0 at the two sigma level (σr = 5 × 10−4 ) after marginalizing over all other cosmological parameters. In
the left panel of Fig. 2 the small ellipsoids illustrate what a detection for a fiducial model with r = 5 × 10−3
would look like.
One advantage of searching for B modes from space is that two windows of detection are available.
There is a bump about two orders of magnitude above the otherwise white noise spectrum at very low-`
(i.e., ` <
∼ 15) due to reionization. This is known as the “reionization bump” and cannot be probed from
the ground, because the measurement of the lowest multipoles from the ground is plagued by systematic
errors. The other window is known as the “recombination bump” and its statistical weight is centered around
` ≈ 70. According to the forecasts for COrE, for r = 0.005 the statistical weight is divided approximately
5
0
0
10 10
Spontaneous
Symmetry
Breaking −1
10
−1
10
power law
chaotic p=8
−2
chaotic p=1 10
chaotic p=0.1
r
r −2
10
WMAP constraints −3
10
COrE constraints
−3
10 −4
Allowed region if no tensor 10
modes detected with COrE
Figure 2: Constraints on inflation from COrE. For a broad range of inflationary models COrE can be
expected to detect primordial gravitational waves from inflation. The large contours on the left panel show
the present constraints from WMAP7 in the r−ns plane. A few parameterized families of inflationary models
give an idea of representative model predictions. The small contours illustrate what a COrE detection would
look like if r = 0.005. The part of parameter space still allowed at 2σ in the case of a non-detection is shown in
grey. The right panel shows the ‘main sequence’ of inflationary models generated using a model-independent
approach. A Melchiorri & L Pagano, H Peiris & L Verde
equally between these two windows and the double measurement will allow the tensor spectral index nT to
be determining thus providing an important cross-check.
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Figure 3: Distinct shapes for the CMB bispectra bl1 l2 l3 plotted with positive (cyan) and negative (magenta)
isocontours.Shown are (from left to right) the ‘local’ model (e.g., multifield inflation), equilateral model (e.g.,
DBI inflation) and cosmic strings. Fergusson & Shellard
allowing tests of the standard cosmology and constraining modified gravity alternatives.
NG is typically characterised by the parameters fNL , the bispectrum amplitude for ‘local” NG arising
in models with multiple fields, and gNL , and τNL , the trispectrum amplitudes. Joint constraints on τNL and
fNL can probe consistency conditions between the bispectrum and trispectrum rule out standard multifield
inflation τNL ≥ (6fNL /5)2 . Beyond these special cases, general estimators have now been developed to
efficiently search for arbitrary shapes in the CMB data, allowing any model or mechanism to be directly
tested. The COrE constraint on local fNL improves by a factor of 2.5 compared to Planck to δfNL ≈ 2.
We define a conservative figure of merit to compare the predicted impact of COrE on NG constraints (or,
equivalently, its discovery potential) for three forms of NG: local, equilateral and flattened. While Planck
will reduce the constraint volume by a factor of 70 compared to WMAP, COrE would improve it by yet
another factor of 20. Considering the constraint volume based only on the polarization maps (which provides
independent information to the temperature maps and can hence provide an important consistency check),
from Planck to COrE there is a factor 110 improvement. This improvement will be even more dramatic
when considering combined constraints on a larger range of NG shapes.
Important further information can be obtained combining the bispectrum with trispectrum constraints.
The forecast precision with which local trispectrum parameters could be measured with COrE temperature
data alone are ∆gN L = 3×104 and ∆τN L = 1×104 , which will be significantly improved when also considering
polarization data. There are also models with a negligible bispectrum and a large trispectrum, including
inflation with a parity symmetry. Similarly, for cosmic strings the trispectrum will provide a significantly
stronger constraint on the string tension than the power spectrum or bispectrum.
What if there is no detection of primordial NG? In this case COrE would rule out all scenarios whose
natural parameter space result in high values of the NG parameters such as fNL , while rendering many
other early universe mechanisms cosmologically irrelevant. Examples include DBI inflation models typically
predicting |fNL | > 5 and competitors to inflation like ekpyrotic/cyclic models predicting measureable |fNL | ∼
10.
In a complementary way to probing primordial gravitational waves, COrE ’s probe of NG offers the
prospect of dramatic new insights into fundamental physics and possible signals from the epoch of quantum
gravity.
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Figure 4: Left: Reconstruction noise on the deflection power spectrum for an extended Planck mission (four
surveys; left) and COrE (right) using temperature alone (red) and temperature and polarization (blue). For
COrE , we also show the approximate noise level (green) for an improved iterative version of the reconstruction
estimator following Smith et al. The deflection power spectrum is also plotted based on the linear matter
power spectrum (black solid) and with non-linear corrections (black dashed). Right: The resulting errors
(including cosmic variance) on the deflection power spectrum from Planck (red) and COrE (blue) using lens
reconstruction with temperature and polarization (no iteration).
statistics of the CMB source plane are well understood so that shear and magnification are equally useful
observables. On the down-side, the CMB is a single source plane so there is no possibility for performing
tomographic studies. Note also that instrumental systematic effects are quite different for the two routes.
The different redshift ranges and systematic effects make CMB and galaxy lensing highly complementary,
and cross-correlations should be able to provide interesting new results.
1.3.2 Neutrino masses as a unique probe of physics beyond the Standard Model
While the Standard Model as first proposed implies that there are three exactly massless chiral neutrinos,
an abundance of evidence for flavor oscillations now exists that requires neutrinos to have mass. Exploration
of the neutrino sector therefore provides truly telling clues on how the Standard Model should be extended.
The most recent data compilations indicate squared mass differences between the three mass eigenstates of
∆m212 = (7.59 ± 0.20) × 10−5 eV2 and ∆m231 = ±(2.43 ± 0.13) × 10−3 eV2 (1σ errors). However, oscillation
experiments do not probe the absolute mass scale of the neutrinos. Taking the charged leptons and quarks
as a guide, we might expect the neutrino masses to be in one of two possible hierarchies: a normal hierarchy
with m1 , m2 m3 and a total mass close to 0.058 eV; or an inverted hierarchy with m3 m1 , m2 and total
mass 0.1 eV. However, one should be mindful that neutrinos could well be degenerate with m1 ∼ m2 ∼ m3
0.05 eV. While laboratory β-decay experiments can probe effective masses, the target values for hierarchical
masses are well below the detection limit of current and future experiments.
Cosmology, however, provides an alternative probe of absolute neutrino masses. Mass splittings from
oscillation data imply that at least two mass eigenstates are non-relativistic today. These impede the growth
of density perturbations on small scales and the resulting mass-dependent suppression of the matter power
spectrum can be measured with CMB lensing even for masses close to the hierarchical targets. We illustrate
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Figure 5: Simulated deflection power spectrum from COrE assuming an inverted hierarchy of neutrino
masses with the minimum total mass allowed by oscillation data (m1 ≈ m2 = 0.05 eV and m3 = 0 eV). In
the upper panel, the solid lines are the theory power spectrum for this scenario (lower) and for three massless
neutrinos (upper). The difference between these spectra is plotted in the lower panel illustrating how COrE
can distinguish these scenarios from Cldd in the range l > 200.
the capabilities of COrE to distinguish the minimal-mass inverted hierarchy from a model with three massless
neutrinos via its reconstruction of the lensing deflection field in Fig. 5. If all other parameters were known,
lensing with COrE could constrain the summed neutrino mass to 0.012 eV (1σ). However this ignores the
issue of uncertainties in the other parameters. While future distance-indicator measurements may help,
to be conservative here we consider only constraints from COrE alone in a joint analysis of the unlensed
temperature and E-mode polarization and the reconstructed deflection field. In our MCMC simulations, we
vary the standard seven parameters of flat wCDM models plus neutrino-mass parameters for three cases.
First we consider a minimal-mass normal hierarchy and use an oscillation prior (ignoring the errors in the
squared-mass differences) to fix m2 and m3 in terms of the lightest mass m1 which we allow to vary. Second
we assume a minimal-mass inverted hierarchy and vary m3 . Finally we assume degenerate neutrinos and
vary the total mass about a model with massless neutrinos. We summarize our results as follows.
• If neutrinos have hierarchical masses, COrE will bound the lightest mass to m1 < 0.034 eV (normal)
and m3 < 0.045 eV (inverted) at 95% confidence.
• The minimal-mass inverted hierarchy could be distinguished from a scenario with three massless neu-
trinos at the 3σ level.
• If neutrino masses are degenerate, COrE will measure the total mass to 0.03 eV (1σ error). For
comparison, the error expected from the Planck nominal mission (including lensing) is 0.10 eV.
Current constraints on neutrino masses from cosmology are rather model dependent and the tightest
constraints come from combining multiple datasets (e.g. CMB and large-scale structure data). The 95%
limits on the total mass are in the range 0.3–2 eV. In models in which w 6= −1, CMB and large-scale
structure data indicate an upper limit at the 1 eV level. Our forecasted constraints from COrE are for
a single homogeneous dataset and are much less model dependent than with current data since the full
shape information in the deflection power spectrum is accessible. For example, Smith et al. show
Pthat for
a CMB lensing experiment comparable to COrE , there are no significant degeneracies between ν mν , w
and the spatial curvature. Our constraints from COrE are comparable to forecasts for tomographic studies
with future galaxy lensing surveys (assuming a Planck prior), for example LSST or Euclid, but with quite
different systematics.
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1.4 Challenging the cosmology paradigm: ancillary cosmological science
1.4.1 Parameters
Even though the main design driver of COrE is to provide ultrasensitive measurements of the CMB polariza-
tion in order to detect tensor modes from inflation, the improvement in the E polarization power spectrum
and the T power spectrum at large multipole number ` will as a by-product improve the determination of the
cosmological parameters typically by a factor 2–3 and thus reduce the allowed volume in parameter space
even more significantly. COrE will tell us whether the simple models that today fit so well will continue to
agree with the data or be ruled out. COrE will also constrain more general models such as those with isocur-
vature modes, non-standard helium fraction, extra relativistic species, etc. In particular, the constraints on
nS and τ will improve by approximately a factor of two.
1.4.2 Reionization history of the universe
Reionization after the dark ages comes from hard radiation emitted by the very first structures formed
in the high-redshift Universe, either by very massive stars or by quasars. The current model-independent
uncertainty on the optical depth, τ , from WMAP is δτ ∼ 0.015. While one expects Planck to find a definitive
constraint on τ , a detailed characterization of the ionization history will be lacking. COrE will, through an
improved measurement of the E-mode in the ` ∼ 10 − 20 range, pin down the possible evolution histories at
high redshift, identifying whether reionization was abrupt, prolonged are underwent various eras. COrE’s
arcminute resolution will also allow a detailed characterization of the morphology of reionization, measuring
the spatial variations in the ionization fraction. The signal that arises from the interaction of the ionizing
regions is expect to peak at ` ∼ 2000.
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understanding of an elusive, but dynamically important, component of galaxies. We outline here three prime
questions we will be able to address with the COrE survey in a unique way.
What is the impact of the magnetic field on the interstellar medium energetics?
Synchrotron emission is a prime tracer of galactic magnetic fields. The synchrotron intensity allows
estimation of the total magnetic field strength, while its polarization fraction gives information about the ratio
of ordered to total field. The COrE data will be an eminent complement to upcoming Faraday tomography
measurements at lower frequencies with LOFAR, eVLA, ASKAP, and SKA. At the 45 GHz frequency of
COrE, Faraday rotation is negligible and the field orientation is directly related to the emission polarization.
Fluctuations in the synchrotron flux in intensity and polarization provide insight into magnetic turbu-
lence. Several characteristic statistical properties are encoded in these data, for example the magnetic energy
and helicity spectra, as well as the spectrum of the magnetic tension force. The accuracy of the COrE infor-
mation will thus provide a unique opportunity to study magneto-hydrodynamical turbulence and dynamo
action, which govern magnetic field amplification, in great detail. It will drastically increase the spectral
range of accurately probed magneto-hydrodynamical modes. Therefore, the detection potential for relevant
plasma physical processes and their characteristic scales such as turbulent energy injection and dissipation
wil be considerably increased. The interplay between turbulence and magnetic fields is also a key to star
formation.
Role of the magnetic field in structuring the interstellar matter and on star formation?
The COrE survey will provide the combination of sensitivity and angular resolution required to continu-
ously map the Galactic magnetic field within interstellar clouds, over their full extent down to the sub-parsec
scales where pre-stellar cores are formed. No other experiment offers such a capability. Planck data will
provide much information on the Galactic magnetic field on large scales, but does not have the required sen-
sitivity to map the field across the diffuse interstellar medium. Upcoming balloon-borne experiments such as
Polar-BLAST and PILOT do not either have the required sensitivity. Stellar polarization observations will
continue to develop, but they are intrinsically limited to a discrete set of sight lines. Ground based telescopes
at sub-mm and millimeter wavelengths including ALMA will image at sub-arcminute angular scales a vari-
ety of compact sources including pre-stellar condensations, but they cannot map polarization from diffuse
emission.
Star formation occurs as a result of the action of gravity, which is counteracted by thermal, magnetic and
turbulent pressures. In the diffuse interstellar medium, outside star-forming molecular clouds, the kinetic
energy from interstellar turbulence and magnetic energy are comparable. Both are much larger than the
clouds’ gravitational binding energy and the gas internal energy. For stars to form, gravity must become,
locally, the dominant force. This occurs where the turbulence energy has dissipated and matter has condensed
without increasing the magnetic field flux in comparable proportions. How and how frequently does this
occur? This question is key to our physical understanding of what regulates the efficiency of star formation.
Star formation is observed to be an inefficient process. The first scenario proposed to regulate star forma-
tion combines long cloud lifetimes and a low star formation efficiency. In this picture, molecular clouds are
prevented from collapsing on large scales by turbulent and magnetic pressures, while star formation is locally
controlled by the rate at which material can cross field lines through ambipolar diffusion. Observations and
numerical simulations are challenging this view. It is increasingly considered, but still debated, that the
bottle-neck of star formation is the formation of magnetically supercritical condensations where magnetic
pressure is too weak to balance gravity. Once they are formed these condensations rapidly collapse to form
stars. Star formation would be generally inefficient, because only a small fraction of the matter reaches this
stage within the cloud lifetimes. Within this second paradigm, molecular clouds are transient, dynamically
evolving gas concentrations produced by compressive motions out of diffuse interstellar matter. This stresses
the importance of the COrE survey to understand how the interplay between turbulence and magnetic field
sets the initial conditions of star formation within the diffuse interstellar medium.
Impact of the magnetic field on the large-scale structure and evolution of the Galaxy?
COrE is also expected to provide new important clues to the effects of the Galactic magnetic field at
larger scales. We know that the magnetic field helps to support the interstellar gas against its own weight
in the Galactic gravitational potential and that it confines cosmic rays to the Galactic disk. In this manner,
both the magnetic field and cosmic rays partake in the overall hydrostatic balance of the interstellar medium,
causing the gaseous disk to become much thicker. In turn, the thickening of the disk tends to make it unstable
to the Parker instability (a type of magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability). When this instability develops,
magnetic field lines ripple, and the interstellar gas slides down along them toward the magnetic troughs,
where it accumulates. The whole process, it has been suggested, could give birth to new molecular cloud
complexes and ultimately trigger star formation.
The magnetic field is also believed to play an important role in disk-halo interactions, although the exact
mechanisms involved are still poorly understood. A priori, one expects the magnetic field to impede mass
exchange between the disk and the halo. For instance, the magnetic field tends to contain super-bubbles and
prevent them from venting gas into the halo. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the magnetic
field might stabilize in-falling clouds and enable them to reach the disk without being disrupted by their
dynamical interaction with the hot halo gas. To test these different ideas, it is crucial to gain a better
observational knowledge of the Galactic magnetic field, particularly in the halo. Similarly, a better knowl-
edge of the Galactic magnetic field, both in the disk and in the halo, will make it possible to place stronger
constraints on the existing dynamo scenarios.
11
Figure 6: The COrE data will allow us to map the turbulent component of the Galactic magnetic field, and thereby to
characterize the role it plays in shaping the diffuse Interstellar medium, and regulating star formation. The interstellar
medium filamentary structure is illustrated here with HI spectroscopic observations obtained with the Dominion Radio
Astrophysical Observatory. The three images correspond to three different velocity channels of one 4◦ × 4◦ field (data
from the Planck Deep Field HI survey, PI Peter Martin).
12
and spectrum of this emission would depend on the specific details of the DM particles composition and
annihilation cross-section, as well as on the Galactic magnetic field establishing the diffusion properties of
the secondary particles produced in DM annihilation.
The existence of an anomalous microwave “haze” in the WMAP data, coinciding with gamma-ray bubbles
observed by Fermi-LAT, centered around the GC has been largely debated. The interpretation is still
controversial: whereas emission from DM secondary particles has been originally invoked to explain the
anomalous WMAP microwave“haze”, this interpretation is at variance with an astrophysical scenario, where
the putative “haze” would be associated with star formation in the GC region, producing a fast wind with
substantial quantities of cosmic-ray ions that diffuse out to large angular scales on the sky.
A wide-frequency and high-sensitivity polarization survey of the GC region with COrE will provide an
unprecedented view of the GC region, and may lead to the discovery of an unambiguous microwave “haze”
associated with DM annihilation. Polarization is a key to disentangle among possible interpretations: while
strong polarization features (on both synchrotron and inverse Compton emission) are expected in a scenario of
SNe driven outflows and winds, a DM-produced microwave “haze” is expected to have quite low polarization,
because the secondary electrons are produced in-situ along the DM density profile of the Galaxy, and are
subject to a smooth and rather isotropic spatial diffusion in the GC magnetic field.
Figure 7: Expected integral counts, as a function of the polarized flux, of radio sources and of different populations
of dusty star-forming galaxies, at 105 and 555 GHz.
Measurements of the polarization properties of radio sources at mm and sub-mm wavelengths provide
important insights into the physical properties (and in particular into the structure of magnetic fields) of the
innermost compact regions of relativistic jets in AGNs. These measurements will be also essential to assess
the point sources contamination of CMB polarization maps. In fact, at high Galactic latitudes, radio sources
are expected to be the main contaminant on scales < ◦
∼0.5 up to frequencies of a few hundred GHz.
The only blind polarization surveys presently available are those produced by WMAP. 22 objects have
detected in polarization in at least one WMAP channel, five of which, however, are doubtful. Planck can
double the number of detections, but the sample will still be too limited for a meaningful study of polarization
properties of the various radio source populations.
Ground based studies of high-frequency polarization properties of radio sources have been carried out by
following-up samples drawn from surveys in total intensity. In spite of recent efforts, polarimetric data at
mm wavelengths are limited, and essentially non-existent at sub-mm wavelengths.
The most extensive polarization information on complete samples selected at high radio frequencies was
obtained at ' 20 GHz. Radio sources are found to be significantly polarized (up to > ∼30%, although the
median polarization degree is approximately 3%).
Polarized emission in giant radio galaxies is an exceptional tool to understand the origin of relativistic
particles, the ultra high-E cosmic rays, and magnetic fields. In regions of the RG lobes where shocks are
strongest, the inflation of the lobe is likely accelerating particles to very high energies, producing also quite
flatter synchrotron spectra, and relatively high-polarization (20-40%) degrees that could be observed with
COrE in many nearby objects. In addition, Inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons in giant radiogalaxy
lobes produce an SZ effect. whose spectrum (both in intensity and polarization at a level of 10-20 %) is best
observed at high frequencies.
Very little is known about the polarization of dusty galaxies, that dominate the counts in total intensity
above ' 100–200 GHz, but there are indications that it is probably ≤ 1% .
The spectacular sensitivity of COrE will allow us to obtain the first large sample of sources blindly
selected in polarization. Source confusion is far less of a problem in polarization than in total intensity.
Adopting an average polarization degree of 3% for radio sources and of 1% for dusty star-forming galaxies,
we find that the confusion noise is always sub-dominant and becomes negligible above 100 GHz, at least in
13
Figure 8: H-ATLAS 350µm SDP field (14.4 deg2 ) smoothed to COrE resolution. Among the brightest sources there
are five strongly lensed high redshift (z ∼ 2–3) dusty galaxies, all potentially detectable by COrE . COrE will select
such extremely interesting sources over most of the whole sky.
high Galactic latitude regions where polarized diffuse emissions are low, and provided that the CMB can be
efficiently removed.
As illustrated by Fig. 7, at 105 GHz we expect to detect the polarized flux of ' 320 radio sources per
2
sr above the 5σ detection limit Slim = 5(σnoise 2 )1/2 ' 3 mJy. At higher frequencies also the polarized
+ σconf
dust emission from dusty star-forming galaxies should be detectable. Under the above assumptions for the
mean polarization degree, we have ' 12 radio sources and ' 5 normal spiral galaxies per sr with polarized
flux larger than the 5σ detection limit of ' 32.5 mJy at 555 GHz. At 795 GHz the 5σ detection limit is
' 48.5 mJy and the expected numbers of detections per sr are of ' 6 radio sources and of ' 16 dusty galaxies.
14
a limited sensitivity and spatial resolution in order to determine and resolve the cluster parameters for the
majority of medium- and small-mass systems.
COrE will provide a substantial improvement in the study of the SZE in galaxy clusters: i) it will provide
a full coverage of the SZE spectrum with a sensitivity that allows a systematic study of the thermal, multi-
temperature and non-thermal properties of many galaxy clusters; ii) it will provide a spatially-resolved
spectral study of many nearby clusters especially at high-ν where the relativistic effects of single- and multi-
temperature, or supra-thermal, plasma are relevant; iii) it will provide relevant constraints on the polarization
of the thermal SZE in many nearby, hot clusters; iv) it will provide a more detailed description of the mm.
point-like source contamination for the determination of the spectral and spatial properties of the cluster
SZE (and of its polarization) especially in the frequency range probed by COrE.
15
from the ground with ALMA and single dish sub-mm telescopes, which will provide polarization imaging at
sub-arcminute angular scales of a variety of compact sources including pre-stellar condensations.
As a last constraint, we note that galactic and extragalactic point sources can be a significant contaminant
for the measurement of CMB B modes, should the tensor-to-scalar ratio be low. As each point source has
its own emission SED, this contamination cannot be effectively removed using multi-frequency observations
unless the sources can be singled out in the maps in the best possible way. This calls for the best possible
angular resolution, which sets the lower limit on the flux limit of detectable point sources.
A limiting constraint for the COrE resolution, however, is set by the diffraction limit due to the size of
the telescope (set in turn by the size of the fairing for a space mission). We thus require the highest possible
resolution available from space, and demonstrate, as discussed in the science section, that it is adequate for
achieving the main science objectives of COrE.
16
by inverting the linear system using a generalized Least Square solution in pixel space. The linearity of the
process allows for estimating foreground residual and noise errors by filtering separately a foreground-only
dataset and a noise-only dataset. This method results in errors forecasts in agreement with those obtained
in figure 9.
More technical details about the component separation for COrE can be found on the website : www.core-
mission.org/proposal/foregrounds.
Figure 9: Component separation exercise for B mode detection assuming (T /S) = 10−3 . The solid black curve shows
the predicted blackbody B mode power spectrum, which is a combination of the tensor B modes (black curve) and a
gravitational lensing background (not shown) making primordial E modes appear as B modes in part. The upper solid
blue curve shows the contribution of diffuse galactic emission in one of the “cleaner” channels (here 105 GHz). The
red curve indicates the instrument noise that would be obtained combining five CMB channels, an the light blue curve
indicates contamination by point sources after the brightest ones (S > 100 mJy at 20GHz and S > 500 mJy at 100
microns) have been cut out. The purple data points indicate the recovered raw primordial spectrum measurements, as
compared to the theoretical spectrum (purple line). The black points result after the gravitational lensing contribution
has been removed, leaving only the recovered tensor contribution. Here a galactic cut with a conservative fsky ' 0.50
has been used.
17
medium scale. Moreover, it will build up sufficient signal-to-noise on the non-Gaussian signal, constrained
by the number of independent triples (or quadruples, etc.) available. This will be crucial if we want to go
beyond detection of fNL to detailed non-Gaussian models of the higher-order moments as discussed above.
Situated between the strongly-radiating ground and Sun, suborbital experiments are highly constrained
in the amount of sky that they can observe as well as the way that they can observe it. They must scan at
constant elevation to avoid rapidly-changing ground pickup while simultaneously avoiding the Sun. Hence
these experiments can typically observe a maximum of a few thousand square degrees with only mild cross-
linking of different scans, with details strongly dependent upon the location of the experiment.
18
Figure 10: Fairing accommodation of COrE .
19
4 Model payload to achieve the science objectives
4.1 Overview of the payload
Based on the exceptional results from the Planck mission and on its actual performances we are now in a
better position to optimize a new satellite design. COrE is an evolutionary concept based heavily on Planck
and Herschel missions, plus a generation of ground based projects. The science breakthrough is via the great
increase of number of detectors through the use of large arrays of feedhorn coupled dual-polarized detectors
divided in 15 spectral bands. Moreover, in comparison to Planck, the incoming polarization is modulated
through the use a unique rotating reflective half-wave plate (RHWP) leading to a much greater accuracy in
the measurement of the polarization.
The instrument (Fig.10) is based on an off-axis reflective telescope able to accept a large focal plane area
(Fig.11 left) with limited aberrations and cross-polarization. The RHWP is located at the entrance aperture
of the telescope so that the instrumental polarization systematic effects are easier to remove. The incoming
radiation then goes through the telescope to be focused onto the horns that are coupled to Ortho-Mode
Transducers (OMT) through a circular waveguide. Each branch of the OMTs separating the two linear
polarizations is coupled to a detector. The cold optics (feedhorns - OMTs - detectors) is cooled at 100 mK
and surrounded by several successive temperature stages. The whole instrument is enclosed in a passively
cooled 35 K shield. The telescope mirrors and the RHWP could be at a lower temperature of 30 K.
Figure 11: Left: FPU: the highest frequency band (795 GHz) is at the center and the 45 GHz horns at the periphery.
Right: Ray-Tracing of the optical system showing the off-axis telescope and the RHWP. Fig.10 shows the instrument
inside the Soyuz fairing.
20
Table 1: Scan parameter definitions and allowed variation ranges.
Parameter Definition Range Potential criticalities
β telescope axis 65 − 85 ◦ > 85◦ : stray light, polarization angle redundancy
to spin axis angle < 65◦ : excessive excursion α angle required
µ̇ spin rate 0.1 − 2 rpm < 0.1 rpm : 1/f noise, thermal fluctuations
> 2 rpm : bolometer time constant
∆φ Depointing angle 1−few arcmin < 1: limited redundancy in sky circles
> 2: insufficient sky sampling
α Solar aspect angle 5 − 27.5◦ < 5: coupling with β and full-sky requirement
> 27.5: thermal effects, stray lights
ψEarth Maximum Earth 0 − 15 ◦ > 15: TM/TC requirements
aspect angle
φ̇ Precession frequency 1-24 weeks polarization angle redundancy, destriping
thermal effects
assume a scanning strategy à la Planck, with only a precession of the spin axis and possibly some level
of nutation. Assuming the COrE spacecraft to be a spinner, the spin rate µ̇ needs to be fast enough to
ensure redundancy for minimizing the effect of 1/f noise and thermal fluctuations, and slow enough to be
compatible with the bolometer time constants. Based on the Planck experience, we anticipate something of
the order of 0.5 rpm, and a step and point approach for the spin axis like in Planck, with similar de-pointing
parameters ∆φ of 1 to a few arcmin every few tens of circles and therefore maintain the nearly anti-solar
configuration (∆φ/∆t ∼ 1◦ /day). This would yield sufficient redundancy in sky circles and, simultaneously,
good sampling of the sky for each single beam up to 220 GHz, i.e. in all the main COrE cosmological
channels. At higher frequencies, where the angular resolution is θF W HM < 4 arcmin, adequate sampling
would be ensured by proper staggering of the feeds in the focal plane.
Tight constraints are imposed on the scanning parameters by thermal and stray light effects, and by
telecommunication requirements. The maximum excursion α of the spin axis from anti-Sun direction must
be limited within 27.5◦ in order to avoid thermal effects and stray light contamination from the Sun and Moon,
and to rule out power-modulation due to asymmetries in the spacecraft or shadowing effects on the solar
panels. Also, the angle of the spin-axis to Earth angle must be limited within 20◦ to ensure good visibility of
a fixed medium gain antenna for TM/TC activity. While steerable antenna designs are possible, we do not
favor their use since they would complicate the design and increase the risk. Depending on the dynamical
constraints and attitude control capabilities, modulation of the spin axis can be set either by precession
(with the advantage of maintaining a constant solar aspect angle) or with cross-ecliptic excursions at an
angle α = 90 − β. The optimal configuration will be determined via simulations that include polarization
angle redundancy, de-striping efficiency, and figures of merit for stray light and thermal effects. Table 1
summarizes a possible baseline based on the Planck experience.
The use of a three-axis stabilized satellite allows further detailed optimization around that basic concept.
For instance, one can imagine to combine the best of the Planck and WMAP scanning, by superimposing a
daily nutation, of 20◦ around the anti-Sun direction, bringing the spin axis back in the anti-earth position
after 24 hours. This has the effect of distributing the basic ring measurement2 to over a∼ 40◦ annulus,
therefore allowing to revisit the same sky pixels at various times over 40 days (constraining systematics of
various periods), at the expense of a somewhat uneven sky coverage. This detailed optimization is left to
the next stage of the study.
In addition to the classical compromise between survey size and sensitivity, COrE has to account for
the directivity of polarization. It is both an additional constraint on the system and a lever arm against
systematic effects. Polarization is usually described in terms of the Stokes parameters I, Q and U . In COrE
we propose to implement a polarization modulator made of a rotating Half-Wave Plate (hereafter RHWP)
which modulates simultaneously all the detectors in the focal plane, so that each detector measures
m = 0.5(I + Q cos 4α + U sin 4α) + n (1)
where n is the noise and α = ωt is the orientation of the RHWP. Each measurement is the linear combi-
nation of three independent parameters. Three independent measurements, each at a different angle α, are
therefore required (at least) to determine the polarization state. In the absence of a polarization modulator,
these measurements would require to rotate the detector. However, that approach mixes beam-shape and
detector-related effects with real polarization signals. The introduction of the modulator has simplified very
significantly the measurement and scan strategy: the satellite does not need to be rotated, and the sky scan
can be very similar to the one used in Planck : the continuous rotation of the RHWP, at a frequency not com-
2
i.e. the measurements made with a stable pointing allowing revisiting the same pixel by the same detector but with several
RHWP orientations.
21
Figure 12: Angular power spectra of the 1/f noise timelines: Previous B-Pol proposal without HWP (left), Planck
and continuously rotating HWP at 1Hz (right).
mensurate to the spin frequency, provides the required change in α for each re-observation, after each scan,
of the same sky pixel. After at least 3 rotation, a ring of fully determined I, Q, U can be obtained, further
rotations allowing an improvement in signal-to-noise and a better discrimination against systematics3 . The
basic idea behind this modulated measurement, as equation 1 shows, is that polarization is modulated at 4α
when the modulator is rotated by α, whereas most systematic effects are fixed in the instrument reference
frame. Rotating the modulator with respect to the incoming polarization and providing sufficient angular
coverage is therefore analogous to a lock-in detection that selects polarization and cancels out systematic
effects. The rotation frequency of the modulator is around 0.1 ÷ 0.5 Hz, slow enough to avoid microphonic
effects.
Results of detailed simulations of this scan / modulation strategy are summarized in fig. 12. The im-
provement with respect to the Planck survey (which had not been optimized for polarization measurements)
is very significant. For simplicity and illustration purpose, we chose typical Planck parameters (α = 5◦ ,
β = 85◦ , µ̇ = 1 rpm) with a continuously rotating HWP (1Hz). For these simulations, we took standard
white and/or 1/f noise with fknee = 0.1Hz and a N ET = 10µK.sec1/2 .
A detailed optimization of scan parameters (angles and precession/nutation frequencies) could be done
in a second step. For this work, suffice is to say that the addition of a HWP enables COrE to relax previous
constraints on sun-shielding and scanning implementation. In light of these one detector simulations, a
continuous rotation of the HWP seems to better reject 1/f noise than a stepped HWP. However, we wish to
insist on the fact that (1) the 1/f rejection can be addressed via performant de-striping algorithms such as
those developed in the context of Planck; (2) stepping the HWP enables to fine tune the angular coverage
and can represent an important technical simplification.
22
Figure 13: GRASP beam simulations in the U-V plane for two extreme off-axis pixels: Right 45 GHz, Left 105 GHz.
Both give 5% beam ellipticity. Optimization/reduction of the beam ellipticity will happen during the Phase A.
projected diameter making use of F2 horns, each having a 3λ aperture diameter. Taking into account an
array filling factor of 0.8 and leaving enough spacing for the spectral filtering, the overall FPU diameter is
about 40 cm (Fig.11 right). The whole optical system is enclosed in a cavity formed by a shield at 35 K with
the RHWP acting as a cold stop. It is expected that the telescope could reach a temperature as low as 30 K
with passive cooling (compared to 40 K on Planck).
While this first iteration optical concept is already producing good performances, improvement will be
needed during a Phase A study. Attention will have to be paid to the beam ellipticity of the edge pixels
(about 5% at the moment) which could be improved with a lengthy optimization of the telescope / RHWP
designs as well as a re-shaping of the FPU surface (curved instead of the flat surface as assumed so far).
Also the possibility of having a colder RHWP will be investigated to reduce the spillover contribution and
to limit the effects of its emissivity (§ 4.3.4).
23
Detailed models4 indicate a photon NEP of about 4.10−18 W.Hz −1/2 in all wavebands. A sensitivity
requirement for the detectors has been chosen to 70% of the photon noise or 3.10−18 W.Hz −1/2 which increases
the total NEP by only 22%. Differential thermal conductances of typically 10pW/K are needed for the TESs
themselves to reach the required NEP, where an operating temperature of 100mK has been assumed. These
conductances are above the quantum conductance limit even for a structure supporting a number of acoustic
modes. Thermal conductance of 0.4pW/K are currently being designed and tested for the SAFARI satellite.
The time constant of the detectors should be lower than the time needed to scan a beam not to degrade
the angular resolution. The stringent constraint is therefore given by the high frequency channels where the
beam size is the smallest. With the proposed design, the required time constant ranges from 10ms to 0.6ms.
TESs show a strong electro-thermal feedback which speeds up their effective time response to the sub-ms
values required by COrE .
The readout system of bolometer arrays requires a multiplexing technique to decrease the thermal loading
on the last cryogenic stage but also to simplify the architecture. The COrE design is based on time domain
multiplexing using SQUIDs as first amplifier stage. A standard SiGe BiCMOS ASIC cooled to 80K will be
used to control the multiplexing sequence and to amplify the signal from the SQUIDs. This technology has
been tested in space by NASA during the MISSE-6 mission onboard of the ISS. A multiplexing factor of 24
has been demonstrated with a heat load of 20 mW down to 4 K. Assuming the same power dissipation, we
have finalized a new design to readout 128 detectors with one ASIC. The COrE architecture will require 50 of
these new ASICs, leading to a power load of about 1 W. Further improvement in terms of power dissipation
and multiplexing factor will be achieved during phase A.
We are also considering the use of superconductive Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs), new devices
operating at 0.1K that promise high-sensitivity, large-format detector arrays. KIDs comprise a supercon-
ducting thin-film microwave resonator capacitively coupled to a probe transmission line. By exciting the
electrical resonance with a microwave probe signal, the transmission phase of the resonator can be moni-
tored, allowing the deposition of energy or power to be detected. The KIDs read each pixel at a separate
frequency. Therefore, only one pair of coax leads is needed to connect several thousand pixels to the read-out
electronics simplifying the thermal architecture. These devices have been demonstrated in the laboratory
and at the IRAM telescope. Since space-compliant versions are still under development, these detectors are
at TRL 4.
24
Figure 14: Left: Free-standing RHWP. Right: Dielectric substrate RHWP
The addition of a dielectric substrate introduces frequency-dependent standing waves (multiple reflections)
within it. Their amplitude will also depend on the type of polarization s or p travelling through it. Models
show that the resulting modulation efficiency deteriorates with increasing substrate refractive index. Using
a substrate with n=1.2 the efficiency drops down to 0.4 which can be improved through spectral filtering.
There are additional losses due to resonances that appear at frequencies corresponding to the device efficiency
peaks. However while the RHWP is rotating the s and p absorption coefficients fluctuate at a frequency 2ω
and the averaged fluctuation amplitudes are of order 6×10−5 and 1.5×10−5 , respectively.
While considered at TRL 4 only, we are choosing the dielectric substrate RHWP as the modulator
baseline for COrE as it offers the best potential performances and manufacturability. Indeed it is based on
the dielectric embedded interference filter technology that has been flown on Planck and Herschel.
25
νnF ilter = 2n × ν0F ilter (3)
Figure 15: Sub-band filtering: Filter transmission (blue) and RHWP efficiency (red).
To reach such sensitivity, the proposed instrument architecture is designed in order to have background
limited performances. The detector number is furthermore optimized to reach the required sensitivity in
26
each channel and to fill the focal plane area. With the current design of the instrument 6 , this process leads
to the numbers given in table 2. The proposed configuration has a total of 6384 detectors in 15 frequency
bands. The core sensitivity is in the CMB channel (75GHz-225GHz) with 4950 detectors.
Table 2: COrE performances - assuming a 50% value for detection chain efficiency.
Central Freq. ∆ν Ndetectors FWHM Unpol. sensitivity Q & U sensitivity
(GHz) (GHz) (arcmin) (µK.arcmin) (µK.arcmin)
45 15 64 23.3 5.2 9.0
75 15 300 14 2.7 4.7
105 15 400 10 2.7 4.6
135 15 550 7.8 2.6 4.5
165 15 750 6.4 2.6 4.6
195 15 1150 5.4 2.6 4.5
225 15 1800 4.7 2.6 4.5
255 15 575 4.1 6.0 10.4
285 15 375 3.7 10.0 17
315 15 100 3.3 26.6 46
375 15 64 2.8 67.8 117
435 15 64 2.4 147.6 255
555 195 64 1.9 218 589
675 195 64 1.6 1268 3420
795 195 64 1.3 7744 20881
4.5 Resources: mass, volume, power, on board data handling and telemetry
The resources have been established by the COrE team in collaboration with CNES and are based upon the
Planck mission. Instrument mass and power breakdowns are given in table 3. The total estimated mass of
the instrument (300 kg) and power (260 W) are higher than for the Planck instruments (LFI + HFI) (total
of 209 kg and 212 W) which is consistent with the fact that we have now only one instrument based on one
detector technology but with a much larger number of detectors.
The overall payload volume is similar to the Planck one. Stored under the Soyuz fairing the maximum
diameter is 3.8 m and about 4 m tall. With the solar panels fully deployed the diameter reaches 5.9 m.
Data storage capacity : a mass memory of 780 Gbits is needed (instead of 32 Gbits for Planck).
The data rate at instrument output is 4.5 Mbits/s, compression included (130 kbits/s on Planck).
27
4.7 Operating modes
After the verification phase the instrument will operate in a single survey mode.
28
4.12 Critical issues
Critical issues related to the payload sub-systems development are addressed in § 5.
In addition, care must be taken to reduce the RHWP emissivity (below ∼ 1%) to match the emissivities
for the two polarizations, and to keep the RHWP as cold as possible. The nominal temperature of the
RHWP is 30K, as for the rest of the telescope assembly. At this temperature, with a RHWP emissivity
of 0.1% at 100 GHz, and with ∼ 1% matching of the emissivities for the two polarizations, the RHWP
produces a spurious signal at a level of about 300 µK p-p at 2ωo . This frequency is far from the frequency
of modulation of a real polarized signal from the sky, 4ωo . However, non-linearities in the detectors might
produce a spurious low-level 4ωo signal. Bolometers being very linear, we expect this effect to be in the
sub-µK region. However, a lower temperature of the RHWP would certainly give some margin, would the
combination of detector non-linearity and emissivity mismatch produce a larger signal.
Because the power dissipated from the FPU, the telescope and the modulator (<10 mW) are reasonably
small, we do not exclude a RHWP and telescope colder than the baseline 30K even taking into account the
radiative heating from the last V-groove (about 10 mW, depending on the emissivity). The main problem
remains the conduction from the supports connecting the telescope/RHWP assembly to the SVM that need
to resist the launch phase giving a heat load in the hundreds of mW range. If, however, we can thermally
decouple from these supports after launch, we can easily reduce the heat load to a few mW. This can be done
using the so-called PODS (passive orbital disconnecting struts) or other active devices. The total 20 mW
thermal load might then be compensated by a JT cooler connected to the whole telescope and modulator
assembly. In these conditions, with a large emitting area (a few square meters) the assembly cools to a few
K in about one week, with a very important reduction of the radiative load on the focal plane box, on the
detectors, and a very significant reduction of the synchronous signal from the rotating wave plate.
Figure 16: Left: prototype of 100 GHz planar OMT (Fr). Center left: array of platelets horns (It). Center right:
array of drilled smooth walled horns (UK). Right: 97 GHz waveguide OMT (UK).
5.1.2 RHWP
The manufacture of the free standing RHWP would be certainly challenging considering that the required
diameter is greater than 1 meter. The mechanical structure of the free-standing wire-grid must be able to
guarantee constant spacing between the wires and constant distance from the mirror all across its surface.
To our knowledge, the biggest device of this type ever built so far has a diameter of 0.5 m (D.T. Chuss).
29
Commercially available dielectric laminates used in microwave engineering to build planar microstrip
circuits could be used to build a dielectric substrate RHWP. These laminates come in different sizes, thick-
nesses, refractive indices and they have copper depositions on both sides. The idea is to use one metallic side
as a mirror and photolithographically etch the other side of the substrate in order to realize metallic strips
that will behave like a wire-grid. The resolution required for the mask production in our frequency range is
achievable with commercial large size printers. The laminate can be joined to a thick metallic flat surface
to increase the structure stiffness. Note that the main problems of the free-standing RHWP are now solved:
the constant spacing between wires is guaranteed by the high accuracy of the photolithographic techniques
adopted whereas the constant distance mirror-wires comes directly from the accurate constant thickness of
the laminates that is required in microstrip circuits.
Shaft: For the torque transmittance between the motor (located in the service module) and the RHWP,
a long fiberglass shaft is a good solution but is in need of further development. The interface between this
compound material and metallic part needs to be studied more carefully due to different thermal expansion
factors. Another critical point could be the dynamical aspect of the shaft. The shaft diameter will be
studied with the stress criteria (torque transmission) and the dynamic criteria (modes for launch and no
torsional modes to not interfere with the motor) potentially leading to higher thermal conduction between
the temperature stage of the motor and the 30 K of the RHWP. If so, magnetic contact-less coupling devices
could be investigated in order to reduce the thermo-mechanical aspects of the shaft.
Bearings Classic bearing mechanism for the RHWP will need to be studied for the lubrications problems
operated at 30 K. A dry lubrication solution might be adopted. However, in order to decrease the thermal
dissipation the High Temperature SuperConducting magnetic bearing, such as the one developed for EBEX,
would be a better solution to completely avoid the problem of lubrication but will need further development.
5.1.4 Detectors
Over the last few years many national funding agencies have invested heavily in establishing superconducting
detector fabrication facilities in Europe. Major facilities exist in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Germany and Italy. These facilities not only provide clean rooms with lithography, processing, and test
equipment, but also provide professional, traceable fabrication routes, producing high-quality high-yield
devices. A major part of the technology development, fabrication, and test programme will be to form a
single network that is coordinated by one lead organization, with all of the partner organizations working
towards the refinement of a single design across all of the chosen wavebands. Most of these laboratories are
working on the development of TESs and KIDs.
30
baseline for the science telemetry transmission of the COrE mission. In order to achieve the link budget, the
35 m ground station located at New Norcia is required as for Planck operations. From the on board side, a
0.5 m diameter high gain antenna pointing towards the Earth is required. Three configuration options are
identified for the antenna: 1-Antenna pointing mechanism (existing) 2-Active antenna pointing (R&D study
on-going) and 3-a fixed parabola antenna, pointed towards the Earth by the spacecraft. The conservative
option 3 is taken as the baseline.
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COrE mass budget
Planck mass COrE mass
Element Planck → COrE evolution
(kg) (kg)
Payload
Structure, V-grooves 261 + 1 V-groove → + 20 kg 281
20K stage 114 sorption cooler → redunded Pulse tube 26
4K 21 similar JT 21
1.7 K stage New, needed to start closed cycle 0.1K stage 10
0.1 K stage 106 open to close cycle → - helium tank + pump 30
Telescope 44 + RHWP; smaller Primary mirror Aperture 60
RHWP movement + motor + shaft → + 20 kg 20
Instrument 95+104 HFI + LFI → rough envelope from table 3 300
- 2 tanks → -30 kg
+ wheel assembly → +50 kg
SVM 767 887
+ Gyro (+50 kg) + Ka band & HGA (+10kg)
+Solar Array (+50 kg) + Sun-shield (+30kg)
Hydrazine 384 128
Other SVM 78 - FOG gyro and environment Monitor 69
Total 1974 1832
Table 5: COrE mass budget estimate by comparison with Planck . This appears to be compatible with Soyuz
lift off mass (2000kg at L2) with sufficient margins.
(X band transponder, TWT amplifier and antennas -low gain and medium gain) For the science telemetry,
as stated above, an additional emitting chain in Ka frequency band is required, including a TWT amplifier
from the shell. It can be coupled with the X band transponder such as TTC systems existing for deep space
missions (Bepi-Colombo, KaTE experiment) with the increase of data rate on the Ka link. As an alternative
solution, a Ka band emitter could be used dedicated to science data. The power increase for the Ka emitting
chain can be roughly estimated to 100 W, so 200 W in total for the TT&C subsystem while transmitting.
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COrE power budget
Planck power COrE power
Element Planck → COrE evolution
(W) (W)
Payload
20K stage 572 sorption cooler → redunded Pulse tube 250
4K 102 similar JT 102
1.7 K stage New, needed to start closed cycle 0.1K stage 20
0.1 K stage 20 open to close cycle → (+ pump) 30
RHWP movement + motor + shaft → + 40 W 40
Instrument 142+70 HFI + LFI → rough envelope from table 3 260
SVM
Transmission 106 +Ka emitter & + 100W amplifier 206
ACS 67 +Wheels (4 × 30 W) 120
Thermal control 72 72
PCDU 35 35
PCDU harness loss (6%) 76
Data Management 36 + mass Memory 100
Propulsion (Orbit control mode) 44 44
Total worst case 1342 1279
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6.8 Proposed procurement approach
We propose a ”standard” procurement approach: the service module, the launch and the operations will be
provided by ESA, while the instrument will be provided by a consortium of national space agencies. The
question of which part of the optical and cryogenic chain is to be provided by ESA and by the consortium
is addressed in the programmatic section § 8. The consortium of participating institutes will be in charge
of the developments, in strict coordination with industrial partners selected for experience, reliability, and
geographical returns.
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cosmic ray hits). Using the several levels of redundancy of the data we can jointly estimate the instrumental
parameters, such as the polarized beam response, systematic effects, and noise properties, together with the
pointing and calibration information. Residual systematics will be estimated and removed combining the
TOI with on-ground and in-flight calibration data (arising, e.g. from planets, bright polarized sources etc.)
Polarized map-making: Using the information extracted at the TOI processing stage we can compress
the TOI into maps of the polarization Stokes parameters of the pixelized sky at the instrument frequencies.
This compression is done in an iterative fashion, using improved estimates of the time-invariant sky signal
to help separate out systematic effects in the time-domain which in turn compresses into more faithful maps
of the sky signal9 . The resulting set of single-frequency maps are the basis for further scientific analysis.
Component separation: At this stage frequency domain information is used to identify and extract
the different signal contributions in the set of single-frequency maps such as the CMB, galactic emission
(synchrotron, free-free and dust) and catalogues of galactic and extragalactic sources. The single frequency
maps and component separated estimates are the starting point for the further scientific exploitation of the
COrE data, the exploration of cosmic origins described in the science plan.
Scientific exploitation: While component separation already brings a level of scientific interpretation
to the data analysis, the component maps will be the basis of further specialized analysis of the correlations
in the CMB polarization anisotropy to extract the anisotropy power spectra, B-mode constraints, higher
order correlation functions for non-Gaussianity tests and the CMB lensing signal. Similarly the magnetic
field tomography and studies of the ISM based on polarized maps of the dust emission derived from higher
frequency channels. These tasks will be organized by developing a structure of science working groups
interfaced with the Data Processing and Exploitation Center (see below).
Extrapolating the performance of existing methods and software tools for the TOI processing, we estimate
that to produce all the single-frequency maps from four years of data from all core detectors would take
about a week on an average present-day supercomputer with ∼ 1, 000 processing units. The growing power
of parallel-computing platforms, combined with improvements in efficiency of massively-parallel algorithms
and codes, should bring the estimated time to make maps down by at least an order of magnitude, permitting
processing of the entire data set on the time scale of a day.
It is thus likely that human resources will remain the real bottleneck for the time-domain processing
efficiency. We thus envisage a significant need for automated data-processing tools and methods which we
will develop pre-launch. COrE will be able to benefit from, and contribute to on-going development of such
tools in other contexts.
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produced. The TORD themselves should also be retained in a long term repository, but would only be served
on special request after some refereeing process.
36
COrE Consortium budget
Subsystem ROM Cost [Me] Potentially provided by
Management and Syst. Engineering 3 FR, IT
Rotating HWP assembly 12 IT, UK, USA
0.1 K CC Dilution 11 FR, USA
Feed horns arrays 5 IT, UK, USA
Quasi-optical filters 5 UK
Detector arrays 12 FR, IT, UK, USA
Focal plane integration and test 10 FR, IT, UK, USA
Cold electronics/multiplexer 18 FR, IT, UK, USA
Warm readout electronics 12 FR, IT, SP
Data Processing Unit 5 FR, IT, SP
Instrument Level Integration 10 FR, IT
Instrument Level Tests 10 FR, IT
COrE Instrument sub-total 113
COrE Science Ground Segment 60 Consortium
COrE Education & outreach 2 Consortium
COrE Consortium overall cost 175
continuation, we have as often as possible taken Planck as a basis for our costing estimate. COrE spacecraft
is a direct heritor of the Planck one, reusing nearly all of its flight-proven developments (in particular
concerning the overall thermal architecture), with a less demanding orbit around L2, à la Herschel . On
the instrument side, COrE has many more detectors than Planck , but uses new technologies for mass-
production of these devices. Most importantly, thanks to advances in bolometer technology, there is only
one instrument in COrE which can cover all the necessary frequency range. Apart from the obvious saving of
removing entirely an expensive instrument which accounted for maybe 40% of the overall instrumental cost,
this also results in an easier integration, calibration and management of the system. Overall, this should
lead to a significant cost reduction of COrE with respect to Planck .
The main subsystems of the instrument will be developed by a single consortium of the scientific institu-
tions involved in COrE , and funded by the national agencies. In table 7 we report a preliminary breakdown
of the costs, and we mention countries who are potential providers of these specific subsystems; that list is
obviously not closed, but rather destined at showing that there are several interested parties to provide each
subsystem. As for Planck , we envisage a substantial involvement of our American colleagues.
One should note from Table 7 that we have assumed here that the first element of the optical system, i.e.
the RHWP, would be provided by the consortium and that all the (rest of the) telescope would be provided
by ESA. We have also assumed that the first part of the cryogenic chain is not part of the instrumental
deliveries, considering in particular that some of the possible coolers might very well be industrial deliveries.
Only the last part which is bound to be an integral part of the instrument design was kept in the instrument
part.
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COrE financial budget [Me]
1. Soyuz Launch 80
2. Spacecraft 374
2.1
Project Office 20
2.2
Engineering 50
2.3
AIT 10
2.4
SVM 92
2.4.1 Structure 8
2.4.2 Thermal 2
2.4.3 Power 21
2.4.4 AOCS 25
2.4.5 TTC TMCU 10
2.4.2 Avionics 26
2.5 Telescope (Structure+PM+SR) 30
2.6 Active Cryogenic chain (→ 1.7K) 59
2.7 COrE Instrument 113
3. ESA Ground Segment (MOC+SOC) 50
4. ESA internal cost (∼ 10% of ESA cost) 43
5. COrE Science ground Segment (DPC, not science) 60
6. COrE Education & outreach 2
7. COrE Science exploitation -
Overall COrE program cost 619
Table 8: Overall COrE cost breakdown, excluding science exploitation of DPC products
Table 9: COrE program main contribution, excluding science exploitation, in the 2 cases considered.
might also be a transatlantic collaboration, as well as the Data Processing. One could also envisage, at the
frontier between ESA and instrument provision, the provision by the US of some of the cooling stages (the
3 stages of Planck active cooling chain were provided by 3 different countries, namely the US, UK, and FR),
as well as the wheel assembly or the telescope assembly.
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general press regarding the COrE mission, and (3) organizing and publicizing a speakers’ bureau that would
bring COrE scientists in contact with school groups.
The outreach activities will focus on communicating the excitement of a single mission that has the
potential to answer questions ranging from the origin of the Universe, the origin of cosmic structure, neutrino
physics, and the origin of stars. To the extent possible we will focus on not just presenting information to the
public but to provide immersive and participatory experiences. The COrE website will include opportunities
to participate in distributed computing projects related to COrE science objectives, thereby involving the
general public in the scientific exploitation of COrE data. In addition, we will develop a presence of the
COrE mission on social media with opportunities for the public to interact with COrE scientists.
10 Selected references
We provide here an abridged set of essential references concerning the polarization, CMB, and sub-millimeter
science and instrumentation. A more complete bibliography as well as supplemental and expanded informa-
tion relating to certain sections of this proposal may be found the COrE website:
www.core-mission.org/proposal/supplements
The COrE team has benefited from experience in a variety of suborbital and space CMB experiments, includ-
ing most notably Boomerang, CLOVER, and PLANCK (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/index.html).
We have also benefited from several B-mode polarization satellite studies starting with the Frech CNES-
sponsored SAMPAN study and the Italian COFIS study of ASI, leading to European B-Pol proposal three
years ago. (www.b-pol.org) A more detailed American CMBPol study followed on this heritage, producing
a number of useful and detailed white papers, which broadly confirm the conclusions of the present study.
In particular, the following papers provide useful details and extensive references:
J Dunkley et al., “CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Prospects for polarized foreground removal,”
(arXiv:0811.3915[astro-ph]) (2008)
A Fraisse et al., “CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Foreground Science Knowledge and Prospects,”
(arXiv:0811.3920[astro-ph]) (2008)
D Baumann et al., “CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization,”
(arXiv:0811.3919[astro-ph]) (2008)
M Zaldarriaga et al., “CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Reionization Science with the Cosmic
Microwave Background,” (arXiv:0811.3918[astro-ph]) (2008)
K Smith et al., “CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Gravitational Lensing,” (arXiv:0811.3916[astro-
ph]) (2008)
More information is at http://cmbpol.uchicago.edu/. We following publications are particularly relevant:
Reichborn-Kjennerud B. et al., “EBEX: A balloon-borne CMB polarization experiment,” Proceed-
ings of the SPIE, Volume 7741, pp. 77411C-77411C-12 (2010) (arXiv:1007.3672)
D Chuss, “Quasioptical Reflective Polarization Modulation for the Beyond Einstein Inflation Probe”
in Polarization Modulators for CMBPol, J of Phys: Conf. Series 155 (2009).
L Verde, H Peiris & R Jimenez, “Optimizing CMB polarization experiments to constrain inflation-
ary physics,” JCAP 0601, 019 (2006) (astro-ph/0506036)
de Zotti, G., et al., “Radio and millimeter continuum surveys and their astrophysical implications”,
(A&ARv 18, 1) (2010).
Lagache, G., et al., “Dusty Infrared Galaxies: Sources of the Cosmic Infrared Background”,
(ARA&A Annual 43, 727) (2005)
J Fergusson, M Liguori, P Shellard, “General CMB and Primordial Bispectrum Estimation I: Mode
Expansion, Map-Making and Measures of fN L ,” Phys. Rev.D82, 023502 (2010) (0912.5516/astro-
ph.CO)
A Lewis & A Challinor, “Weak gravitational lensing of the CMB,” Phys. Rept. 429, 1 (2006)
(astro-ph/0601594)
C McKee & E Ostriker, “Theory of Star Formation,” ARAA 45, 565 (2007)
J Delabrouille & J Cardoso, “Diffuse Source Separation in CMB Observations,” (astro-ph/0702198)
S Leach et al., “Component separation methods for the PLANCK mission,” A& A 491, 597 (2008)
(arXiv:0805.0269)
A more detailed bibliography arranged section by section appears on the COrE website cited above.
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