Validation of harmonic-space likelihood methods for LiteBIRD B-mode polarisation analysis
Abstract
The LiteBIRD satellite mission aims to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ with unprecedented sensitivity through observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarisation. Robust constraints on $r$ require accurate likelihood modelling across a wide range of angular scales. In this work, we validate harmonic-space likelihood methods against pixel-based benchmarks using 20\,000 end-to-end simulations that include CMB, instrumental noise, and Galactic foreground residuals processed through a realistic component-separation pipeline. We compare a debiased pixel-based likelihood, which serves as our benchmark on large scales ($\ell\leq32$), with an offset Hamimeche \&Lewis (oHL) likelihood applicable across the full multipole range. We systematically explore the space of analysis settings, identifying the number of simulations used for covariance estimation and the choice of beam window function as the most critical factors. Over the full multipole range considered ($\ell\leq128$), where the benchmark combines the pixel-based likelihood at $\ell\leq32$ with a harmonic one at smaller scales, the 68\% upper bound on $r$ from the oHL likelihood is $19$--$29\%$ larger than the benchmark one, depending on the beam window function. This demonstrates its viability as a computationally efficient baseline for LiteBIRD data analysis and cosmological inference from the polarisation $B$-mode field.