PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): A White Paper on the Ultimate Polarimetric Spectro-Imaging of the Microwave and Far-Infrared Sky

Philippe Andre , Carlo Baccigalupi , Domingos Barbosa , J.G. Bartlett (1) , Nicola Bartolo (2, 3) , Elia Battistelli , Richard Battye , George Bendo , Jean-Philippe Bernard , Marco Bersanelli , Matthieu Bethermin (4) , Pawel Bielewicz , Anna Bonaldi , Francois Bouchet (5) , Francois Boulanger (4) , Jan Brand (6) , M. Bucher (1) , Carlo Burigana , Zhen-Yi Cai , Viviana Casasola (7) , Guillaume Castex , Anthony Challinor , Jens Chluba , Sergio Colafrancesco (8, 9) , Francesco Cuttaia , Giuseppe d'Alessandro , Richard Davis , Miguel de Avillez , Paolo de Bernardis , Marco de Petris , Adriano de Rosa , Gianfranco de Zotti , J. Delabrouille (10) , Clive Dickinson , Jose Maria Diego , Edith Falgarone (7) , Pedro Ferreira , Katia Ferriere (11) , Fabio Finelli , Andrew Fletcher , Gary Fuller , Silvia Galli , K. Ganga (1) , Juan Garcia-Bellido (12) , A. Ghribi (1) , Joaquin Gonzalez-Nuevo , Keith Grainge , Alessandro Gruppuso , Alex Hall , Carlos Hernandez-Monteagudo , M. Jackson (13) , Andrew Jaffe , Rishi Khatri , Luca Lamagna , Massimiliano Lattanzi (14) , Paddy Leahy , Michele Liguori , Elisabetta Liuzzo , Marcos Lopez-Caniego , Juan Macias-Perez (15) , Bruno Maffei , Davide Maino , Silvia Masi , Anna Mangilli , Marcella Massardi , Sabino Matarrese (2, 3) , Alessandro Melchiorri (16) , Jean-Baptiste Melin , Aniello Mennella , Arturo Mignano , Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschenes , Federico Nati , Paolo Natoli , Mattia Negrello , Fabio Noviello , Francesco Paci , Rosita Paladino , Daniela Paoletti , Francesca Perrotta , Francesco Piacentini , M. Piat (17) , Lucio Piccirillo , Giampaolo Pisano , Gianluca Polenta , Sara Ricciardi , Matthieu Roman , Jose-Alberto Rubino-Martin , Maria Salatino , Alessandro Schillaci , Paul Shellard (18) , Joseph Silk , Radek Stompor (10) , Rashid Sunyaev , A. Tartari , Luca Terenzi , Luigi Toffolatti , Maurizio Tomasi , Tiziana Trombetti , Marco Tucci , Bartjan van Tent (19) , Licia Verde , Ben Wandelt , Stafford Withington

1 APC - Cosmologie
2 Dipartimento di Fisica "G. Galilei"
3 INFN, Sezione di Padova
4 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
5 LIMSI - Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur
6 IRA - Istituto di Radioastronomia [Bologna]
7 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique
8 OAR - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
9 ASI-ASDC
10 APC-Gravitation - APC - Gravitation
11 LATT - Laboratoire Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes
12 Departamento de Fisica Teorica
13 APC - THEORIE
14 ICRA and Physics Department
15 LPSC - Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie
16 UNIROMA - Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome]
17 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
18 DAMTP - Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
19 LPT - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique d'Orsay [Orsay]

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in response to the Call for White Papers for the definition of the L2 and L3 Missions in the ESA Science Programme. PRISM would have two instruments: (1) an imager with a 3.5m mirror (cooled to 4K for high performance in the far-infrared---that is, in the Wien part of the CMB blackbody spectrum), and (2) an Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) somewhat like the COBE FIRAS instrument but over three orders of magnitude more sensitive. Highlights of the new science (beyond the obvious target of B-modes from gravity waves generated during inflation) made possible by these two instruments working in tandem include: (1) the ultimate galaxy cluster survey gathering 10e6 clusters extending to large redshift and measuring their peculiar velocities and temperatures (through the kSZ effect and relativistic corrections to the classic y-distortion spectrum, respectively) (2) a detailed investigation into the nature of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) consisting of at present unresolved dusty high-z galaxies, where most of the star formation in the universe took place, (3) searching for distortions from the perfect CMB blackbody spectrum, which will probe a large number of otherwise inaccessible effects (e.g., energy release through decaying dark matter, the primordial power spectrum on very small scales where measurements today are impossible due to erasure from Silk damping and contamination from non-linear cascading of power from larger length scales). These are but a few of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible with PRISM.

Domaines: Physique mathématique [math-ph]; Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]

Philippe Andre, Carlo Baccigalupi, Domingos Barbosa, J.G. Bartlett, Nicola Bartolo, et al.. PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): A White Paper on the Ultimate Polarimetric Spectro-Imaging of the Microwave and Far-Infrared Sky. 2013. ⟨hal-00838227⟩