MEASURING CMB POLARIZATION WITH THE LSPE EXPERIMENT: SIMULATION AND SENSITIVITY STUDIES FOR THE STRIP INSTRUMENT

The search of primordial B-mode fluctuations in the polarization pattern of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is one of the most active and challenging fields in modern observational cosmology. A detection of primordial B-modes would in fact provide a strong evidence in favour of the Inflationary paradigm, shedding light on the physics of the early Universe. The Large Scale Polarization Explorer is an Italian-led experiment designed to measure the CMB polarization at large angular scales. Its primary goals are the constraint of the B-mode component down to r = 0.03 and the study of the polarized emissions of our Galaxy. LSPE will observe 25% of the sky in the Northern hemisphere relying on the synergy of two different instruments, a balloon-borne experiment (SWIPE) and a ground-based telescope (STRIP), complementary for frequency coverage and technology. STRIP, in particular, will observe the 43 GHz sky with an array of 49 polarimeters in order to characterize the Galactic synchrotron signal. STRIP will be installed at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) in mid-late 2021, and at least two years of observations will follow. This PhD thesis describes the Unit Tests campaign of STRIP polarimetric modules, from the test procedures to the data analysis, focusing in particular on the characterization of the bandpass response. A simulation pipeline, developed for the STRIP experiment in order to assess its scientific performance, is also presented. Particular attention is given to the generation of realistic data streams and to the implementation of a map-maker, following the destriping technique. The results of end-to-end simulations of STRIP observation, also exploiting the results of the Unit Tests, are finally presented. In particular, the behaviour of the destriping algorithm in the specific case of the STRIP instrument has been evaluated, together with the impact of some systematics effects.