Scientific forecasts for the first observations from the Simons Observatory Small Aperture Telescopes.

The student will participate in the development and exploitation of the parametric, map-based pipeline for the scientific exploitation of CMB polarization data sets from the Simons Observatory (SO). Although this pipeline is optimized for the detection of primordial B-modes, the intern will lead an effort to measure the performance of the SO Small Aperture Telescopes to detect and characterize E-modes. Beyond their usefulness for calibration and to detect potential systematic effects, E-modes on the largest angular scales could have an important impact on e.g. our understanding of the reionization period, as well as the measurement of the total neutrino mass.