PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): an extended white paper

Abstract

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in May 2013 as a large-class mission for investigating within the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision program a set of important scientific questions that require high resolution, high sensitivity, full-sky observations of the sky emission at wavelengths ranging from millimeter-wave to the far-infrared. PRISM's main objective is to explore the distant universe, probing cosmic history from very early times until now as well as the structures, distribution of matter, and velocity flows throughout our Hubble volume. PRISM will survey the full sky in a large number of frequency bands in both intensity and polarization and will measure the absolute spectrum of sky emission more than three orders of magnitude better than COBE FIRAS. The data obtained will allow us to precisely measure the absolute sky brightness and polarization of all the components of the sky emission in the observed frequency range, separating the primordial and extragalactic components cleanly from the galactic and zodiacal light emissions. The aim of this Extended White Paper is to provide a more detailed overview of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible by PRISM, which include: (1) the ultimate galaxy cluster survey using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect, detecting approximately 106 clusters extending to large redshift, including a characterization of the gas temperature of the brightest ones (through the relativistic corrections to the classic SZ template) as well as a peculiar velocity survey using the kinetic SZ effect that comprises our entire Hubble volume; (2) a detailed characterization of the properties and evolution of dusty galaxies, where the most of the star formation in the universe took place, the faintest population of which constitute the diffuse CIB (Cosmic Infrared Background); (3) a characterization of the B modes from primordial gravity waves generated during inflation and from gravitational lensing, as well as the ultimate search for primordial non-Gaussianity using CMB polarization, which is less contaminated by foregrounds on small scales than the temperature anisotropies; (4) a search for distortions from a perfect blackbody spectrum, which include some nearly certain signals and others that are more speculative but more informative; and (5) a study of the role of the magnetic field in star formation and its interaction with other components of the interstellar medium of our Galaxy. These are but a few of the highlights presented here along with a description of the proposed instrument.

Inflation and String Theory

“…Future galaxy surveys [151] may reduce the error on n s by a factor of 5. At the same time, future CMB polarization experiments [26,[152][153][154][155] have the potential to reduce the error on r to the percent level.…”

“…Note that the axions ϑ i appear in the phase of each nonperturbative term. In view of (3.93), the Kähler potential has a complicated dependence on the Kähler moduli 152) where V is the volume of the compact Calabi-Yau manifold. The N = 1 supergravity theory defined by (5.151) and (5.152) has N light chiral superfields, 51 and generically admits supersymmetric AdS 4 solutions.…”

Features and new physical scales in primordial observables: Theory and observation

“…It thus remains a pertinent question to ask whether or not we have exhausted all the information content that is potentially available in the primordial two-point correlation functions. Even if primordial non-Gaussianity is ever detected, the question takes on added significance in light of the vast amount of data due to become available in the near to long term through large-scale structure [21][22][23], 21 cm observations [24][25][26][27] and observations of the spectral distortion of the CMB [28,29]. In partici Although interesting deviations from its predictions might be present at longer wavelengths with marginal significance [5].…”

Non-Standard Hierarchies of the Runnings of the Spectral Index in Inflation

“…Similarly, future CMB survey missions such as the Cosmic Origins Explorer (CORE) [12,13] or the Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (PRISM) [14], 21 cm mapping [15] with an instrument such as the Square Kilometre Array [16], or a spectroscopic galaxy survey with the Euclid satellite [17] could constrain α s and β s . Particularly with a combination of some or all of these future experiments (or comparable alternatives), as forecasted in [18], the uncertainty in the runnings could be brought down to O(10 −3 ).…”