© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present a cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map produced from a linear combination of South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck temperature data. The 150 GHz temperature data from the 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ survey is combined with the Planck 143 GHz data in harmonic space to obtain a temperature map that has a broader ℓ coverage and less noise than either individual map. Using a quadratic estimator technique on this combined temperature map, we produce a map of the gravitational lensing potential projected along the line of sight. We measure the auto-spectrum of the lensing potential CLφφ, and compare it to the theoretical prediction for a ΛCDM cosmology consistent with the Planck 2015 data set, finding a best-fit amplitude of 0.95-0.06+0.06(stat.)0.01+0.01(sys.). The null hypothesis of no lensing is rejected at a significance of 24σ. One important use of such a lensing potential map is in cross-correlations with other dark matter tracers. We demonstrate this cross-correlation in practice by calculating the cross-spectrum, CLφG, between the SPT+Planck lensing map and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) galaxies. We fit CLφG to a power law of the form PL = a(L/L0)-b with a, L 0, and b fixed, and find ηφG = CLφG/PL = 0.94-0.04+0.04, which is marginally lower, but in good agreement with ηφG = 1.00-0.01+0.02, the best-fit amplitude for the cross-correlation of Planck-2015 CMB lensing and WISE galaxies over ∼67% of the sky. The lensing potential map presented here will be used for cross-correlation studies with the Dark Energy Survey, whose footprint nearly completely covers the SPT 2500 deg2 field.

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. The Planck cosmic microwave background temperature data are best fit with a ΛCDM model that mildly contradicts constraints from other cosmological probes. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) 2540 SPT-SZ survey offers measurements on sub-degree angular scales (multipoles ) with sufficient precision to use as an independent check of the Planck data. Here we build on the recent joint analysis of the SPT-SZ and Planck data in Hou et al. by comparing ΛCDM parameter estimates using the temperature power spectrum from both data sets in the SPT-SZ survey region. We also restrict the multipole range used in parameter fitting to focus on modes measured well by both SPT and Planck, thereby greatly reducing sample variance as a driver of parameter differences and creating a stringent test for systematic errors. We find no evidence of systematic errors from these tests. When we expand the maximum multipole of SPT data used, we see low-significance shifts in the angular scale of the sound horizon and the physical baryon and cold dark matter densities, with a resulting trend to higher Hubble constant. When we compare SPT and Planck data on the SPT-SZ sky patch to Planck full-sky data but keep the multipole range restricted, we find differences in the parameters n s and Ase-2τ. We perform further checks, investigating instrumental effects and modeling assumptions, and we find no evidence that the effects investigated are responsible for any of the parameter shifts. Taken together, these tests reveal no evidence for systematic errors in SPT or Planck data in the overlapping sky coverage and multipole range and at most weak evidence for a breakdown of ΛCDM or systematic errors influencing either the Planck data outside the SPT-SZ survey area or the SPT data at ℓ >.

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We report constraints on cosmological parameters from the angular power spectrum of a cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential map created using temperature data from 2500 deg2 of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data supplemented with data from Planck in the same sky region, with the statistical power in the combined map primarily from the SPT data. We fit the lensing power spectrum to a model including cold dark matter and a cosmological constant (λCDM), and to models with single-parameter extensions to λCDM. We find constraints that are comparable to and consistent with those found using the full-sky Planck CMB lensing data, e.g., σ8ωm0.25 = 0.598 ± 0.024 from the lensing data alone with weak priors placed on other parameters. Combining with primary CMB data, we explore single-parameter extensions to λCDM. We find or ωk = -0.012-0.0230.021 or Mv < 0.70 eV at 95% confidence, in good agreement with results including the lensing potential as measured by Planck. We include two parameters that scale the effect of lensing on the CMB: AL, which scales the lensing power spectrum in both the lens reconstruction power and in the smearing of the acoustic peaks, and Aφφ, which scales only the amplitude of the lensing reconstruction power spectrum. We find Aφφ × AL = 1.01 ± 0.08 for the lensing map made from combined SPT and Planck data, indicating that the amount of lensing is in excellent agreement with expectations from the observed CMB angular power spectrum when not including the information from smearing of the acoustic peaks.

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present three maps of the millimeter-wave sky created by combining data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Planck satellite. We use data from the SPT-SZ survey, a survey of 2540 deg2 of the the sky with arcminute resolution in three bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, and the full-mission Planck temperature data in the 100, 143, and 217 GHz bands. A linear combination of the SPT-SZ and Planck data is computed in spherical harmonic space, with weights derived from the noise of both instruments. This weighting scheme results in Planck data providing most of the large-angular-scale information in the combined maps, with the smaller-scale information coming from SPT-SZ data. A number of tests have been done on the maps. We find their angular power spectra to agree very well with theoretically predicted spectra and previously published results.

© 2002-2011 IEEE. In this paper, we describe the optimization of transition-edge-sensor (TES) detector arrays for the third-generation camera for the South Pole Telescope. The camera, which contains ~ 16 000 detectors, will make high-angular-resolution maps of the temperature and polarization of the cosmic microwave background. Our key results are scatter in the transition temperature of Ti/Au TESs is reduced by fabricating the TESs on a thin Ti(5 nm)/Au(5 nm) buffer layer and the thermal conductivity of the legs that support our detector islands is dominated by the SiOx dielectric in the microstrip transmission lines that run along the legs.

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We present measurements of the E-mode polarization angular auto-power spectrum (EE) and temperature-E-mode cross-power spectrum (TE) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using 150 GHz data from three seasons of SPTpol observations. We report the power spectra over the spherical harmonic multipole range 50 < ℓ ≤ 8000 and detect nine acoustic peaks in the EE spectrum with high signal-to-noise ratio. These measurements are the most sensitive to date of the EE and TE power spectra at ℓ > 1050 and ℓ > 1475, respectively. The observations cover 500 , a fivefold increase in area compared to previous SPTpol analyses, which increases our sensitivity to the photon diffusion damping tail of the CMB power spectra enabling tighter constraints on ΛCDM model extensions. After masking all sources with unpolarized flux mJy, we place a 95% confidence upper limit on residual polarized point-source power of at Dℓ = ℓ(ℓ+1)ℓℓ/2π < 0.107 μK2 at ℓ = 3000, suggesting that the EE damping tail dominates foregrounds to at least ℓ= 4050 with modest source masking. We find that the SPTpol data set is in mild tension with the ΛCDM model (2.1 δ), and different data splits prefer parameter values that differ at the ∼ 1 δ level. When fitting SPTpol data at ℓ < 1000, we find cosmological parameter constraints consistent with those for Planck temperature. Including SPTpol data at ℓ> 1000 results in a preference for a higher value of the expansion rate (H071.3 ± 2.1 Km s-1 Mpc-1) and a lower value for present-day density fluctuations (δ8 =0.77 ±0.02).

© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present a measurement of the cosmic microwave background lensing potential using 500 deg2 of 150 GHz data from the SPTpol receiver on the South Pole Telescope. The lensing potential is reconstructed with signal-to-noise per mode greater than unity at lensing multipoles L ≲ 250, using a quadratic estimator on a combination of cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization maps. We report measurements of the lensing potential power spectrum in the multipole range of 100 < L < 2000 from sets of temperature-only (T), polarization-only (POL), and minimum-variance (MV) estimators. We measure the lensing amplitude by taking the ratio of the measured spectrum to the expected spectrum from the best-fit Λ cold dark matter model to the Planck 2015 TT + low P + lensing data set. For the minimum-variance estimator, we find =0.944 0.025 (Sys.) SRC=restricting to only polarization data, we find POL=0.906\pm 0.090 0.040. Considering statistical uncertainties alone, this is the most precise polarization-only lensing amplitude constraint to date (10.1σ) and is more precise than our temperature-only constraint. We perform null tests and consistency checks and find no evidence for significant contamination.

© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present cosmological constraints based on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing potential power spectrum measurement from the recent 500 deg2 SPTpol survey, the most precise CMB lensing measurement from the ground to date. We fit a flat ΛCDM model to the reconstructed lensing power spectrum alone and in addition with other data sets: baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), as well as primary CMB spectra from Planck and SPTpol. The cosmological constraints based on SPTpol and Planck lensing band powers are in good agreement when analyzed alone and in combination with Planck full-sky primary CMB data. With weak priors on the baryon density and other parameters, the SPTpol CMB lensing data alone provide a 4% constraint on. Jointly fitting with BAO data, we find away from the central values preferred by Planck lensing + BAO. However, we recover good agreement between SPTpol and Planck when restricting the analysis to similar scales. We also consider single-parameter extensions to the flat ΛCDM model. The SPTpol lensing spectrum constrains the spatial curvature to be and the sum of the neutrino masses to be eV at 95% C.L. (with Planck primary CMB and BAO data), in good agreement with the Planck lensing results. With the differences in the signal-to-noise ratio of the lensing modes and the angular scales covered in the lensing spectra, this analysis represents an important independent check on the full-sky Planck lensing measurement.

© 2020 American Physical Society. We report a B-mode power spectrum measurement from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropy observations made using the SPTpol instrument on the South Pole Telescope. This work uses 500 deg2 of SPTpol data, a five-fold increase over the last SPTpol B-mode release. As a result, the bandpower uncertainties have been reduced by more than a factor of two, and the measurement extends to lower multipoles: 52< <2301. Data from both 95 and 150 GHz are used, allowing for three cross-spectra: 95 GHz × 95 GHz, 95 GHz × 150 GHz, and 150 GHz × 150 GHz. B-mode power is detected at very high significance; we find P(BB<0)=5.8×10-71, corresponding to a 18.1σ detection of power. With a prior on the galactic dust from Planck, WMAP and BICEP2/Keck observations, the SPTpol B-mode data can be used to set an upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r<0.44 at 95% confidence (the expected 1σ constraint on r given the measurement uncertainties is 0.22). We find the measured B-mode power is consistent with the Planck best-fit ΛCDM model predictions. Scaling the predicted lensing B-mode power in this model by a factor Alens, the data prefer Alens=1.17±0.13. These data are currently the most precise measurements of B-mode power at >320.

© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society We study the polarization properties of extragalactic sources at 95 and 150 GHz in the SPTpol 500 deg2 survey. We estimate the polarized power by stacking maps at known source positions, and correct for noise bias by subtracting the mean polarized power at random positions in the maps. We show that the method is unbiased using a set of simulated maps with similar noise properties to the real SPTpol maps. We find a flux-weighted mean-squared polarization fraction 〈p2〉= [8.9 ± 1.1] × 10−4 at 95 GHz and [6.9 ± 1.1] × 10−4 at 150 GHz for the full sample. This is consistent with the values obtained for a subsample of active galactic nuclei. For dusty sources, we find 95 per cent upper limits of 〈p2〉95 < 16.9 × 10−3 and 〈p2〉150 < 2.6 × 10−3. We find no evidence that the polarization fraction depends on the source flux or observing frequency. The 1σ upper limit on measured mean-squared polarization fraction at 150 GHz implies that extragalactic foregrounds will be subdominant to the CMB E and B mode polarization power spectra out to at least ℓ ≲ 5700 (ℓ ≲ 4700) and ℓ ≲ 5300 (ℓ ≲ 3600), respectively, at 95 (150) GHz.