Narrow Results

Radio source observations play important roles in polarimetric cosmological studies. On the one hand, they constitute the main foregrounds for cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation on scales smaller than 30 arcmin up to 100 GHz, on the other they can be used as targets for validation of products of polarimetric experiments dedicated to cosmology. Furthermore, extragalactic high-redshift sources have been used for cosmic polarization rotation (CPR) investigation. In this paper, we will discuss the support to cosmological studies from ground-based polarimetric observations in the radio and millimetric wavelength bands. Most of the limits to accuracy improvements arise from systematic effects and low calibration quality. We will discuss some details of interferometric calibration procedures and show some of the perspectives that the Atacama large millimeter array (ALMA) could offer for CPR studies.

Cosmological and astrophysical surveys from radio to far-infrared, in both temperature and polarization, offer a unique view of the universe properties and of the formation and evolution of its structures. The last release, close to be finalized, of the Planck mission results sets the scene for cosmological models and parameters, while the comparison with other types of data sets raises the issue of possible tensions about some parameters, first of all the Hubble constant. At the same time, on the extragalactic side, Planck carried out the deepest systematic all-sky survey of SZ galaxy clusters and detected thousands of dusty galaxies and many hundreds of extragalactic radio sources, also allowing us to investigate many specific topics, including molecular hydrogen clouds in galactic halos. The exploitation of future generation of CMB missions and the next radio facilities will allow us to deeply investigate several topics in cosmology and astrophysics, from the existence of primordial gravitational waves to the energy releases in the primeval plasma, from the dawn ages and the epoch of reionization to the formation and evolution of early galaxies and clusters, while a wide set of open astrophysical problems can be studied with future IR missions.