2026 Project Description

Detecting Cosmic CO Emission Using Planck Bandpass Differences

Supervisors

Yi-Kuan Chiang
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

This project aims to detect cosmic carbon monoxide (CO) emission using Planck data by exploiting small differences in the frequency bandpass responses of individual detector sets, which effectively provide pseudo–narrow-band measurements. By forming bandpass-difference maps, CO line emission can be isolated from broadband continuum signals. The student will construct bandpass-difference maps from Planck observations, model their effective spectral response to CO emission, and cross-correlate these maps with galaxy surveys to extract the redshift-dependent CO signal. The goals of the project are to assess the sensitivity of this technique, identify key sources of systematic uncertainty, and evaluate its potential for detecting molecular gas emission using existing CMB datasets.

Required Background

Background in astrophysics and experience with Python programming