Bibcode
Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bracco, A.; Burigana, C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Dunkley, J.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Ferrière, K.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frolov, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gruppuso, A.; Guillet, V.; Hansen, F. K.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huang, Z.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R. et al.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 586, id.A141, 17 pp.
Advertised on:
2
2016
Journal
Citations
64
Refereed citations
62
Description
The quest for a B-mode imprint from primordial gravity waves on the
polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) requires the
characterization of foreground polarization from Galactic dust. We
present a statistical study of the filamentary structure of the 353 GHz
Planck Stokes maps at high Galactic latitude, relevant to the study of
dust emission as a polarized foreground to the CMB. We filter the
intensity and polarization maps to isolate filaments in the range of
angular scales where the power asymmetry between E-modes and B-modes is
observed. Using the Smoothed Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder (SMAFF),
we identify 259 filaments at high Galactic latitude, with lengths larger
or equal to 2° (corresponding to 3.5 pc in length for a typical
distance of 100 pc). Thesefilaments show a preferred orientation
parallel to the magnetic field projected onto the plane of the sky,
derived from their polarization angles. We present mean maps of the
filaments in Stokes I, Q, U, E, and B, computed by stacking individual
images rotated to align the orientations of the filaments. Combining the
stacked images and the histogram of relative orientations, we estimate
the mean polarization fraction of the filaments to be 11%. Furthermore,
we show that the correlation between the filaments and the magnetic
field orientations may account for the E and B asymmetry and the
CℓTE/CℓEE ratio,
reported in the power spectra analysis of the Planck353 GHz polarization
maps. Future models of the dust foreground for CMB polarization studies
will need to take into account the observed correlation between the dust
polarization and the structure of interstellar matter.