The European Low Frequency Survey

Observing the radio sky to understand the beginning of the Universe

¹ Università degli studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy
³ University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0021, USA
⁴ Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
⁵ Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
⁶ Institut de Recherche end Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Toulouse, France
⁷ Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA), Santander, Cantabria, Spain
⁸ The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
⁹ Centre Pierre Binétruy (CNRS-UCB), IRL2007, CPB-IN2P3, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
¹⁰ Berkeley University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4206, USA
¹¹ University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, United Kingdom
¹² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹³ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

^* e-mail: aniello.mennella@fisica.unimi.it

Published online: 28 March 2024

Abstract

In this paper we present the European Low Frequency Survey (ELFS), a project that will enable the detection of primordial B-mode polarization by measuring the Galactic and extra-Galactic foregrounds in the 5– 120 GHz frequency window. Indeed, the main difficulty in measuring the Bmode polarization comes not just from its sheer faintness, but from the fact that many other objects in the Universe also emit polarized microwaves, which mask the faint CMB signal. The first stage of this project will be carried out in synergy with the Simons Array (SA) collaboration, installing a 5.5–11 GHz coherent receiver at the focus of one of the three 3.5m SA telescopes in Atacama, Chile (“ELFS on SA”). The receiver will be equipped with a fully digital backend based on the latest Xilinx RF System-on-Chip devices that will provide frequency resolution of 1MHz across the whole observing band, allowing us to clean the scientific signal from unwanted radio frequency interference, particularly from low-Earth orbit satellite mega-constellations. This paper reviews the scientific motivation for ELFS and its instrumental characteristics, and provides an update on the development of ELFS on SA.