In the observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization, “$EB$ leakage” refers to the artificial $B$-mode signal coming from the leakage of the $E$-mode signal when part of the sky is unavailable or excluded. Correction of such a leakage is one of the preconditions for detecting primordial gravitational waves via the CMB $B$-mode signal. In this work, we design two independent methods for correcting the $EB$ leakage directly in the pixel domain using standard definitions of the $E$- and $B$-modes. The two methods give consistent results, and both are fast and easy to implement. Tests on a CMB simulation containing a zero initial $B$-mode show an efficient suppression of the $EB$ leakage. When combined with the MASTER method to reconstruct the full-sky $B$-mode spectrum in simulations with a relatively simple mask, the error from EB-leakage is suppressed further by more than 1 order of magnitude at the recombination bump, and up to 3 orders of magnitude at higher multipoles, compared to a “pure” MASTER scheme under the same conditions. Meanwhile, although the final power spectrum estimation benefits from apodization, the pixel domain correction itself is done without apodization, and thus the methods offer more freedom in choosing an apodization based on specific requirements.

• Received 11 November 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.023538