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

• Published in: Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics 2014-02, Vol.2014 (2), p.1-68
• Main Authors: André, Philippe, Baccigalupi, Carlo, Banday, Anthony, Barbosa, Domingos, Barreiro, Belen, Bartlett, J.G., Bartolo, Nicola, Battistelli, Elia, Battye, Richard, Bendo, George, Benoit, Alain, Bernard, Jean-Philippe, Bersanelli, Marco, Béthermin, Matthieu, Bielewicz, Pawel, Bonaldi, Anna, Bouchet, François, Boulanger, François, Brand, Jan, Bucher, M., Burigana, Carlo, Cai, Zhen-Yi, Camus, Philippe, Casas, Francisco, Casasola, Viviana, Castex, Guillaume, Challinor, Anthony, Chluba, Jens, Chon, Gayoung, Colafrancesco, Sergio, Comis, B., Cuttaia, Francesco, d'Alessandro, Giuseppe, da Silva, Antonio, Davis, Richard, de Avillez, Miguel, de Bernardis, Paolo, de Petris, Marco, de Rosa, Adriano, de Zotti, Gianfranco, Delabrouille, J., Désert, François-Xavier, Dickinson, Clive, Diego, Jose Maria, Dunkley, Joanna, Ensslin, Torsten, Errard, Josquin, Falgarone, Edith, Ferreira, Pedro, Ferrière, Katia, Finelli, Fabio, Fletcher, Andrew, Fosalba, Pablo, Fuller, Gary, Galli, Silvia, Ganga, K., García-Bellido, Juan, Ghribi, A., Giard, Martin, Giraud-Héraud, Y., Gonzalez-Nuevo, Joaquin, Grainge, Keith, Gruppuso, Alessandro, Hall, Alex, Hamilton, Jean-Christophe, Haverkorn, Marijke, Hernandez-Monte\-Agudo, Carlos, Herranz, Diego, Jackson, Mark, Jaffe, Andrew, Khatri, Rishi, Kunz, Martin, Lamagna, Luca, Lattanzi, Massimiliano, Leahy, Paddy, Lesgourgues, Julien, Liguori, Michele, Liuzzo, Elisabetta, Lopez-Caniego, Marcos, Macias-Perez, J., Maffei, Bruno, Maino, Davide, Mangilli, Anna, Martinez-Gonzalez, Enrique, Martins, Carlos, Masi, Silvia, Massardi, Marcella, Matarrese, Sabino, Melchiorri, Alessandro, Melin, Jean-Baptiste, Mennella, Aniello, Mignano, Arturo, Miville-Deschênes, Marc-Antoine, Monfardini, Alessandro, Murphy, Anthony, Naselsky, Pavel, Nati, Federico, Natoli, Paolo, Negrello, Mattia, Noviello, Fabio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; BRIGHTNESS; Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics; EMISSION; Emission analysis; European Space Agency; FREQUENCY RANGE; Frequency ranges; GALAXIES; GALAXY CLUSTERS; GRAVITATIONAL LENSES; GRAVITY WAVES; Imaging; MAGNETIC FIELDS; Missions; Physics; POLARIZATION; Polarized radiation; Prisms; RED SHIFT; RELATIVISTIC RANGE; Sciences of the Universe; SENSITIVITY; SKY; SPECTRA; SPECTROSCOPY; STARS; UNIVERSE; VELOCITY; ZODIACAL LIGHT
• ISSN: 1475-7516; 1475-7508; 1475-7516
• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/02/006

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 Ms tory from very early times until now as well as the structures, distribution of matter, and velocity flows throughout our Hubble volume. 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. These are but a few of the highlights presented here along with a description of the proposed instrument.