QUIJOTE Science Goals
The QUIJOTE-CMB experiment has two primary scientific goals:
- to detect the imprint of gravitational B-modes if they have an amplitude greater or equal to r= 0.03;
- to provide essential information of the polarization of the synchrotron and the anomalous microwave emissions from our Galaxy at low frequencies (10-40 GHz).
For these scientific objectives, QUIJOTE will conduct several surveys in intensity and linear polarization (i.e., Stokes I, Q and U maps):
- "Wide survey": a shallow Galactic survey covering around 30 000 deg2 of sky. It is expected to be finished after one year of effective observing time with each instrument, reaching sensitivities of ~35–40μK per one degree beam in the Stokes Q and U maps with the MFI (11–19GHz), and ~3 μK per beam with the TGI and FGI at 30 and 40GHz.
- “Cosmological survey": it will cover around 3000 deg2, splitted in three areas (cosmological fields) named COSMO1, COSMO2 and COSMO3. Here, we shall reach sensitivities of ~3–4μK per one degree beam after one year of effective observing time with the MFI (11–19GHz), and ~1 μK per beam with TGI and FGI at 30 and 40GHz.
- “Galactic regions": dedicated raster scan observations in selected Galactic regions (Perseus, Taurus, IC443, Cyg A, W49+W51, M31, Fan, Haze, rho-Oph).
According to these nominal sensitivities, QUIJOTE-CMB will provide one of the most sensitive 11–19GHz measurements of the polarisation of the synchrotron and anomalous emissions on degree angular scales. This information is extremely important given that B-modes are known to be sub-dominant in amplitude as compared to the Galactic emission.