Analysis of thermally-induced effects in Planck Low Frequency Instrument

The Planck mission will provide full-sky maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background with unprecedented angular resolution (∼10′) and sensitivity (ΔT/T∼10−6). This requires cryogenically cooled, high sensitivity detectors as well as an extremely accurate control of systematic errors, which must be kept at μK level. In this work we focus on systematic effects arising from thermal instabilities in the Low Frequency Instrument, operating in the 30–100 GHz range. Our results show that it is of crucial importance to assure “in hardware” a high degree of stability. In addition, we provide an estimate of the level at which it is possible to reduce the contamination level in the observed maps by proper analysis of the Time Ordered Data.