The NIKA polarimeter on science targets: Crab nebula observations at 150 GHz and dual-band polarization images of Orion Molecular Cloud OMC-1

¹ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, 53, avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
² LLR (Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet), CNRS, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France
³ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Plaza San Juan, 1, planta 2, E-44001, Teruel, Spain
⁴ Astronomy Instrumentation Group, University of Cardiff, UK
⁵ AIM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁶ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
⁷ Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), CNRS and Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France
⁸ Institut Néel, CNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes, France
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy
¹⁰ Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), Grenoble, France
¹¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
¹² Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (IRAM), Granada, Spain
¹³ Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Marseille, France
¹⁴ LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMCUniv. Paris 06, 75014 Paris, France
¹⁵ School of Earth and Space Exploration and Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
¹⁶ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS (UMR7095), 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
¹⁷ Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

^* e-mail: alessia.ritacco@ias.u-psud.fr

Published online: 27 January 2020

Abstract

We present here the polarization system of the NIKA camera and give a summary of the main results obtained and performed studies on Orion and the Crab nebula. The polarization system was equipped with a room temperature continuously rotating multi-mesh half wave plate and a grid polarizer facing the NIKA cryostat window. NIKA even though less sensitive than NIKA2 had polarization capability in both 1 and 2 millimiter bands. NIKA polarization observations demonstrated the ability of such a technology in detecting the polarization of different targets, compact and extended sources like the Crab nebula and Orion Molecular Cloud region OMC-1. These measurements together with the developed techniques to deal with systematics, opened the way to the current observations of NIKA2 in polarization that will provide important advances in the studies of galactic and extra-galactic emission and magnetic fields.