PICO: Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins

• Published in: arXiv.org 2019-02
• Main Authors: Hanany, Shaul, Alvarez, Marcelo, Artis, Emmanuel, Ashton, Peter, Aumont, Jonathan, Aurlien, Ragnhild, Banerji, Ranajoy, Barreiro, R Belen, Bartlett, James G, Basak, Soumen, Battaglia, Nick, Bock, Jamie, Boddy, Kimberly K, Bonato, Matteo, Borrill, Julian, Bouchet, François, Boulanger, François, Burkhart, Blakesley, Chluba, Jens, Chuss, David, Clark, Susan E, Cooperrider, Joelle, Crill, Brendan P, De Zotti, Gianfranco, Delabrouille, Jacques, Eleonora Di Valentino, Didier, Joy, Doré, Olivier, Eriksen, Hans K, Errard, Josquin, Essinger-Hileman, Tom, Feeney, Stephen, Filippini, Jeffrey, Fissel, Laura, Flauger, Raphael, Fuskeland, Unni, Gluscevic, Vera, Gorski, Krzysztof M, Green, Dan, Hensley, Brandon, Herranz, Diego, Hill, J Colin, Hivon, Eric, Hložek, Renée, Hubmayr, Johannes, Johnson, Bradley R, Jones, William, Jones, Terry, Knox, Lloyd, Kogut, Al, López-Caniego, Marcos, Lawrence, Charles, Lazarian, Alex, Li, Zack, Madhavacheril, Mathew, Melin, Jean-Baptiste, Meyers, Joel, Murray, Calum, Negrello, Mattia, Novak, Giles, O'Brient, Roger, Paine, Christopher, Pearson, Tim, Pogosian, Levon, Pryke, Clem, Puglisi, Giuseppe, Remazeilles, Mathieu, Rocha, Graca, Schmittfull, Marcel, Scott, Douglas, Shirron, Peter, Stephens, Ian, Sutin, Brian, Tomasi, Maurizio, Trangsrud, Amy, Alexander van Engelen, Vansyngel, Flavien, Wehus, Ingunn K, Wen, Qi, Xu, Siyao, Young, Karl, Zonca, Andrea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Angular resolution; Astrophysics; Control equipment; Cosmic dust; Evolution; Frequencies; Galactic evolution; Galaxies; Gold; Imaging polarimeters; Ionization; Milky Way; Missions; Neutrinos; Origins; Polarization; Sky surveys (astronomy); Star & galaxy formation; Star formation; Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect; Tensors; Variation
• ISSN: 2331-8422

The Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO) is an imaging polarimeter that will scan the sky for 5 years in 21 frequency bands spread between 21 and 799 GHz. It will produce full-sky surveys of intensity and polarization with a final combined-map noise level of 0.87 \(\mu\)K arcmin for the required specifications, equivalent to 3300 Planck missions, and with our current best-estimate would have a noise level of 0.61 \(\mu\)K arcmin (6400 Planck missions). PICO will either determine the energy scale of inflation by detecting the tensor to scalar ratio at a level \(r=5\times 10^{-4}~(5\sigma)\), or will rule out with more than \(5\sigma\) all inflation models for which the characteristic scale in the potential is the Planck scale. With LSST's data it could rule out all models of slow-roll inflation. PICO will detect the sum of neutrino masses at \(>4\sigma\), constrain the effective number of light particle species with \(\Delta N_{\rm eff}