Optical characterization of the Keck Array and BICEP3 CMB Polarimeters from 2016 to 2019
Keck Collaboration, T. St Germaine, P. A. R. Ade, Z. Ahmed, M. Amiri, D. Barkats, R. Basu Thakur, C. A. Bischoff, J. J. Bock, H. Boenish, E. Bullock, V. Buza, J… 展开作者
Keck Collaboration, T. St Germaine, P. A. R. Ade, Z. Ahmed, M. Amiri, D. Barkats, R. Basu Thakur, C. A. Bischoff, J. J. Bock, H. Boenish, E. Bullock, V. Buza, J. Cheshire, J. Connors, J. Cornelison, M. Crumrine, A. Cukierman, M. Dierickx, L. Duband, S. Fatigoni, J. P. Filippini, S. Fliescher, J. A. Grayson, G. Hall, M. Halpern, S. Harrison, S. R. Hildebrandt, G. C. Hilton, H. Hui, K. D. Irwin, J. Kang, K. S. Karkare, E. Karpel, S. Kefeli, S. A. Kernasovskiy, J. M. Kovac, C. L. Kuo, K. Lau, E. M. Leitch, K. G. Megerian, L. Moncelsi, T. Namikawa, C. B. Netterfield, H. T. Nguyen, R. O'Brient, R. W. Ogburn, S. Palladino, C. Pryke, B. Racine, C. D. Reintsema, S. Richter, A. Schillaci, R. Schwarz, C. D. Sheehy, A. Soliman, B. Steinbach, R. V. Sudiwala, K. L. Thompson, J. E. Tolan, C. Tucker, A. D. Turner, C. Umilta, A. G. Vieregg, A. Wandui, A. C. Weber, D. V. Wiebe, J. Willmert, C. L. Wong, W. L. K. Wu, E. Yang, K. W. Yoon, E. Young, C. Yu, C. Zhang
备注：
8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by the Journal of Low Temperature Physics (Proceedings of the 18th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors)
The BICEP/Keck experiment (BK) is a series of small-aperture refracting telescopes observing degree-scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization from the South Pole in search of a primordial $B$-mode signature. This $B$-mode signal arises from primordial gravitational waves interacting with the CMB, and has amplitude parametrized by the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. Since 2016, BICEP3 and the Keck Array have been observing with 4800 total antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor detectors, with frequency bands spanning 95, 150, 220, and 270 GHz. Here we present the optical performance of these receivers from 2016 to 2019, including far-field beams measured in situ with an improved chopped thermal source and instrument spectral response measured with a field-deployable Fourier Transform Spectrometer. As a pair differencing experiment, an important systematic that must be controlled is the differential beam response between the co-located, orthogonally polarized detectors. We generate per-detector far-field beam maps and the corresponding differential beam mismatch that is used to estimate the temperature-to-polarization leakage in our CMB maps and to give feedback on detector and optics fabrication. The differential beam parameters presented here were estimated using improved low-level beam map analysis techniques, including efficient removal of non-Gaussian noise as well as improved spatial masking. These techniques help minimize systematic uncertainty in the beam analysis, with the goal of constraining the bias on $r$ induced by temperature-to-polarization leakage to be subdominant to the statistical uncertainty. This is essential as we progress to higher detector counts in the next generation of CMB experiments.
The Keck Array (SPUD) is a set of microwave polarimeters that observes from the South Pole at degree angular scales in search of a signature of Inflation imprinted as B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The first three Keck Array receivers were deployed during the 2010-2011 Austral summer, followed by two new receivers in the 2011-2012 summer season, completing the full five-receiver array. All five receivers are currently observing at 150 GHz. The Keck Array employs the field-proven BICEP/BICEP2 strategy of using small, cold, on-axis refractive optics, providing exce…
The Keck Array is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter that will begin observing from the South Pole in late 2010. The initial deployment will consist of three telescopes similar to BICEP2 housed in ultra-compact, pulse tube cooled cryostats. Two more receivers will be added the following year. In these proceedings we report on the design and performance of the Keck cryostat. We also report some initial results on the performance of antenna-coupled TES detectors operating in the presence of a pulse tube. We find that the performance of the detectors is not seriously impacted by the …
We present a novel system to calibrate millimeter-wave polarimeters for CMB polarization measurements. This technique is an extension of the conventional metal mirror rotation approach, however it employs cryogenically-cooled blackbody absorbers. The primary advantage of this system is that it can generate a slightly polarized signal ($\sim100$ mK) in the laboratory; this is at a similar level to that measured by ground-based CMB polarization experiments observing a $\sim$ 10 K sky. It is important to reproduce the observing condition in the laboratry for reliable characterization of polarimet…
B-modes are special patterns in cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. The detection of them is a smoking-gun signature of primordial gravitational waves. The generic strategy of the CMB polarization experiments is to employ a large number of polarimeters for improving the statistics. The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT-II (QUIET-II) has been proposed to detect the B-modes using the world's largest coherent polarimeter array (2,000 channels). An unique detection technique using QUIET's polarimeters, which is a modula- tion/demodulation scheme, enables us directly extracting the polarization si…
Several on-going and future experiments use a Stokes polarimeter (i.e. a rotating wave plate followed by a steady polarizer and by an unpolarized detector) to measure the small polarized component of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The expected signal is typically evaluated using the Mueller formalism. In this work we carry-out the signal evaluation taking into account the temperatures of the different optical devices present in the instrument, their non- idealities, multiple internal reflections, and reflections between different optical components. This analysis, which exploits a new descri…
Precision measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, especially experiments seeking to detect the odd-parity "B-modes", have far-reaching implications for cosmology. To detect the B-modes generated during inflation the Flux response and polarization angle of these experiments must be calibrated to exquisite precision. While suitable flux calibration sources abound, polarization angle calibrators are deficient in many respects. Man-made polarized sources are often not located in the antenna's far-field, have spectral properties that are radically differ…
We present the design and the preliminary on sky performance with respect to beams and pass-bands of a multichroic polarimeter array covering the 90 and 146 GHz Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bands and its enabling broadband optical system recently deployed on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). The constituent pixels are feedhorn-coupled multichroic polarimeters fabricated at NIST. This array is coupled to the ACT telescope via a set of three silicon lenses incorporating novel broad-band metamaterial anti-reflection coatings. This receiver represents the first multichroic detector array…
The Precursor Small Aperture Telescope (PreSAT) CMB polarimeter
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（卡弗里粒子天体物理学与宇宙学研究所，SLAC国家加速器实验室）；Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院物理系）；Jet Propulsion Laboratory（喷气推进实验室）；Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学物理与天文学院天体物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；Department of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学物理系，恩里科·费米研究所，卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）
This paper presents a polarization calibration method applied to a microwave polarimeter demonstrator based on a near-infrared (NIR) frequency up-conversion stage that allows both optical correlation and signal detection at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The instrument was designed to measure the polarization of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation from the sky, obtaining the Stokes parameters of the incoming signal simultaneously, in a frequency range from 10 to 20 GHz. A linearly polarized input signal with a variable polarization angle is used as excitation in the polarimeter calibration s…
Multi-chroic polarization sensitive detectors offer an avenue to increase both the spectral coverage and sensitivity of instruments optimized for observations of the cosmic-microwave background (CMB) or sub-mm sky. We report on an effort to adapt the Truce Collaboration horn coupled bolometric polarimeters for operation over octave bandwidth. Development is focused on detectors operating in both the 90 and 150 GHz bands which offer the highest CMB polarization to foreground ratio. We plan to deploy an array of 256 multi-chroic 90/150 GHz polarimeters with 1024 TES detectors on ACTPol in 2013, …
The SPTpol camera is a dichroic polarimetric receiver at 90 and 150 GHz. Deployed in January 2012 on the South Pole Telescope (SPT), SPTpol is looking for faint polarization signals in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The camera consists of 180 individual Transition Edge Sensor (TES) polarimeters at 90 GHz and seven 84-polarimeter camera modules (a total of 588 polarimeters) at 150 GHz. We present the design, dark characterization, and in-lab optical properties of the 150 GHz camera modules. The modules consist of photolithographed arrays of TES polarimeters coupled to silicon platelet a…
Precise polarisation measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) require accurate knowledge of the instrument orientation relative to the sky frame used to define the cosmological Stokes parameters. Suitable celestial calibration sources that could be used to measure the polarimeter orientation angle are limited, so current experiments commonly `self-calibrate.' The self-calibration method exploits the theoretical fact that the $EB$ and $TB$ cross-spectra of the CMB vanish in the standard cosmological model, so any detected $EB$ and $TB$ signals must be due to systematic errors. Howe…
Most upcoming CMB experiments are planning to deploy between a few thousand and a few hundred thousand TES bolometers in order to drastically increase sensitivity and unveil the B-mode signal. Differential systematic effects and $1/f$ noise are two of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve this result. In recent years, rotating Half-Wave Plates have become increasingly more popular as a solution to mitigate these effects, especially for those experiments that are targeting the largest angular scales. However, other effects may appear when a rotating HWP is being employed. …
The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) is an Explorer-class mission concept to measure the gravitational-wave signature of primordial inflation through its distinctive imprint on the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Its optical system couples a polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer to the sky to measure the differential signal between orthogonal linear polarization states from two co-pointed beams on the sky. The double differential nature of the four-port measurement mitigates beam-related systematic errors common to the two-port systems used in most CMB me…
The quest for primordial gravitational waves enclosed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization B-modes signal motivates the development of a new generation of high sensitive experiments (e.g. CMB-S4, LiteBIRD) that would allow them to detect its imprint.Neverthless, this will be only possible by ensuring a high control of the instrumental systematic effects and an accurate absolute calibration of the polarization angle. The Crab nebula is known to be a polarization calibrator on the sky for CMB experiments, already used for the Planck satellite it exhibits a high polarized signal …
BICEP3 is a $550~mm$ aperture telescope with cold, on-axis, refractive optics designed to observe at the $95~GHz$ band from the South Pole. It is the newest member of the BICEP/Keck family of inflationary probes specifically designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at degree-angular scales. BICEP3 is designed to house 1280 dual-polarization pixels, which, when fully-populated, totals to $\sim$9$\times$ the number of pixels in a single Keck $95~GHz$ receiver, thus further advancing the BICEP/Keck program's $95~GHz$ mapping speed. BICEP3 was deployed during t…
The BICEP3 CMB Polarimeter is a small-aperture refracting telescope located at the South Pole and is specifically designed to search for the possible signature of inflationary gravitational waves in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The experiment measures polarization on the sky by differencing the signal of co-located, orthogonally polarized antennas coupled to Transition Edge Sensor (TES) detectors. We present precise measurements of the absolute polarization response angles and polarization efficiencies for nearly all of BICEP3s $\sim800$ functioning polarization-sensitive detector pa…
Multichroic polarization sensitive detectors enable increased sensitivity and spectral coverage for observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). An array optimized for dual frequency detectors can provide 1.7 times gain in sensitivity compared to a single frequency array. We present the design and measurements of horn coupled multichroic polarimeters encompassing the 90 and 150 GHz frequency bands and discuss our plans to field an array of these detectors as part of the ACTPol project.
Spider is a balloon-borne array of six telescopes that will observe the Cosmic Microwave Background. The 2400 antenna-coupled bolometers in the instrument will make a polarization map of the CMB with ~degree resolution at 150 GHz and 95 GHz. Polarization modulation is achieved via a cryogenic sapphire half-wave plate (HWP) skyward of the primary optic. In this thesis, the design, construction, and lab testing of the HWP system are discussed. The polarization modulation of these optical stacks is modeled using a physical optics calculation and Mueller matrices. Performance tests in both the lab…
We report on the design and performance of the BICEP3 instrument and its first three-year data set collected from 2016 to 2018. BICEP3 is a 52cm aperture, refracting telescope designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on degree angular scales at 95GHz. It started science observation at the South Pole in 2016 with 2400 antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. The receiver first demonstrated new technologies such as large-diameter alumina optics, Zotefoam infrared filters, and flux-activated SQUIDs, allowing $\sim 10\times$ higher optical throu…
We describe a low-cost, open-access, CubeSat-based calibration instrument that is designed to support ground-based and sub-orbital experiments searching for various polarization signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). All modern CMB polarization experiments require a robust calibration program that will allow the effects of instrument-induced signals to be mitigated during data analysis. A bright, compact, and linearly polarized astrophysical source with polarization properties known to adequate precision does not exist. Therefore, we designed a space-based millimeter-wave calibratio…
Sub-Kelvin Cryogenics for a Super-Pressure Balloon-Borne CMB Polarimeter: Taurus
Case Western Reserve University（凯斯西储大学）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of Colorado Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校）；University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；University of Iceland（冰岛大学）；Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）
We describe SPIDER, a balloon-borne instrument to map the polarization of the millimeter-wave sky with degree angular resolution. Spider consists of six monochromatic refracting telescopes, each illuminating a focal plane of large-format antenna-coupled bolometer arrays. A total of 2,624 superconducting transition-edge sensors are distributed among three observing bands centered at 90, 150, and 280 GHz. A cold half-wave plate at the aperture of each telescope modulates the polarization of incoming light to control systematics. Spider's first flight will be a 20-30-day Antarctic balloon campaig…
BICEP2/Keck and SPIDER are cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeters targeting the B-mode polarization induced by primordial gravitational waves from inflation. They will be using planar arrays of polarization sensitive antenna-coupled TES bolometers, operating at frequencies between 90 GHz and 220 GHz. At 150 GHz each array consists of 64 polarimeters and four of these arrays are assembled together to make a focal plane, for a total of 256 dual-polarization elements (512 TES sensors). The detector arrays are integrated with a time-domain SQUID multiplexer developed at NIST and read out u…
BICEP3 is a small-aperture refracting cosmic microwave background (CMB) telescope designed to make sensitive polarization maps in pursuit of a potential B-mode signal from inflationary gravitational waves. It is the latest in the BICEP/Keck Array series of CMB experiments at the South Pole, which has provided the most stringent constraints on inflation to date. For the 2016 observing season, BICEP3 was outfitted with a full suite of 2400 optically coupled detectors operating at 95 GHz. In these proceedings we report on the far field beam performance using calibration data taken during the 2015…
Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background $B$-mode polarization power spectrum by the BICEP2 and POLARBEAR experiments have demonstrated new precision tools for probing fundamental physics. Regardless of origin, the fact that we can detect sub-$μ$K CMB polarization represents a tremendous technological breakthrough. Yet more information may be latent in the CMB's polarization pattern. Because of its tensorial nature, CMB polarization may also reveal parity-violating physics via a detection of cosmic polarization rotation. Although current CMB polarimeters are sensitive enough to m…
We extend a general maximum likelihood foreground estimation for cosmic microwave background polarization data to include estimation of instrumental systematic effects. We focus on two particular effects: frequency band measurement uncertainty, and instrumentally induced frequency dependent polarization rotation. We assess the bias induced on the estimation of the $B$-mode polarization signal by these two systematic effects in the presence of instrumental noise and uncertainties in the polarization and spectral index of Galactic dust. Degeneracies between uncertainties in the band and polariza…
BICEP Array is the newest multi-frequency instrument in the BICEP/Keck Array program. It is comprised of four 550 mm aperture refractive telescopes observing the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 30/40, 95, 150 and 220/270 GHz with over 30,000 detectors. We present an overview of the receiver, detailing the optics, thermal, mechanical, and magnetic shielding design. BICEP Array follows BICEP3's modular focal plane concept, and upgrades to 6" wafer to reduce fabrication with higher detector count per module. The first receiver at 30/40 GHz is expected to start observing a…
The B-Machine Telescope is the culmination of several years of development, construction, characterization and observation. The telescope is a departure from standard polarization chopping of correlation receivers to a half wave plate technique. Typical polarimeters use a correlation receiver to chop the polarization signal to overcome the $1/f$ noise inherent in HEMT amplifiers. B-Machine uses a room temperature half wave plate technology to chop between polarization states and measure the polarization signature of the CMB. The telescope has a demodulated $1/f$ knee of 5 mHz and an average se…
The Atacama B-mode Search (ABS) experiment is a 145 GHz polarimeter designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at large angular scales. The ABS instrument will ship to the Atacama Desert of Chile fully tested and ready to observe in 2010. ABS will image large-angular-scale CMB polarization anisotropies onto a focal plane of 240 feedhorn-coupled, transition-edge sensor (TES) polarimeters, using a cryogenic crossed-Dragone design. The ABS detectors, which are fabricated at NIST, use orthomode transducers to couple orthogonal polarizations of incoming rad…
The BICEP3 Polarimeter is a small aperture, refracting telescope, dedicated to the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at 95GHz. It is designed to target degree angular scale polarization patterns, in particular the very-much-sought-after primordial B-mode signal, which is a unique signature of cosmic inflation. The polarized signal from the sky is reconstructed by differencing co-localized, orthogonally polarized superconducting Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers. In this work, we present absolute measurements of the polarization response of the detectors for more than $…
The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) experiment aims to map the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at angular scales larger than a few degrees. Operating from Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it will observe over 65% of the sky at 38, 93, 148, and 217 GHz. In this paper we discuss the design, construction, and characterization of the CLASS 38 GHz detector focal plane, the first ever Q-band bolometric polarimeter array.
A detection of curl-type ($B$-mode) polarization of the primary CMB would be direct evidence for the inflationary paradigm of the origin of the Universe. The BICEP/Keck Array (BK) program targets the degree angular scales, where the power from primordial $B$-mode polarization is expected to peak, with ever-increasing sensitivity and has published the most stringent constraints on inflation to date. BICEP Array (BA) is the Stage-3 instrument of the BK program and will comprise four BICEP3-class receivers observing at 30/40, 95, 150 and 220/270 GHz with a combined 32,000+ detectors; such wide fr…
BICEP2 and the Keck Array are polarization-sensitive microwave telescopes that observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the South Pole at degree angular scales in search of a signature of inflation imprinted as B-mode polarization in the CMB. BICEP2 was deployed in late 2009, observed for three years until the end of 2012 at 150 GHz with 512 antenna-coupled transition edge sensor bolometers, and has reported a detection of B-mode polarization on degree angular scales. The Keck Array was first deployed in late 2010 and will observe through 2016 with five receivers at several frequenci…
The BICEP/Keck Array experiment is a series of small-aperture refracting telescopes observing degree-scale Cosmic Microwave Background polarization from the South Pole in search of a primordial $B$-mode signature. As a pair differencing experiment, an important systematic that must be controlled is the differential beam response between the co-located, orthogonally polarized detectors. We use high-fidelity, in-situ measurements of the beam response to estimate the temperature-to-polarization (T $\rightarrow$ P) leakage in our latest data including observations from 2016 through 2018. This incl…
Detecting B-mode polarization anisotropies on large angular scales in the CMB polarization pattern is one of the major challenges in modern observational cosmology since it would give us an important evidence in favor of the inflationary paradigm and would shed light on the physics of the very early Universe. Multi-frequency observations are required to disentangle the very weak CMB signal from diffuse polarized foregrounds originating by radiative processes in our galaxy. The "Large Scale Polarization Explorer" (LSPE) is an experiment that aims to constrain the ratio between the amplitudes of…
The search for the B-mode polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the new frontier of observational Cosmology. A B-mode detection would give an ultimate confirmation to the existence of a primordial Gravitational Wave (GW) background as predicted in the inflationary scenario. Several experiments have been designed or planned to observe B-modes. In this work we focus on the forthcoming Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) experiment, that will be devoted to the accurate measurement of CMB polarization at large angular scales. LSPE consists of a balloon-borne bolometric instrume…
Circular polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) offers the possibility of detecting rotations of the universe and magnetic fields in the primeval universe or in distant clusters of galaxies. We used the Milano Polarimeter (MIPOL) installed at the Testa Grigia Observatory, on the italian Alps, to improve the existing upper limits to the CMB circular polarization at large angular scales. We obtain 95% confidence level upper limits to the degree of the CMB circular polarization ranging between 5.0x10^{-4} and 0.7x10^{-4} at angular scales between 8 and 24 deg, improving by one orde…
Data products from high spectral resolution astronomical polarimeters are often limited by fringes. Fringes can skew derived magnetic field properties from spectropolarimetric data. Fringe removal algorithms can also corrupt the data if the fringes and object signals are too similar. For some narrow-band imaging polarimeters, fringes change the calibration retarder properties, and dominate the calibration errors. Systems-level engineering tools for polarimetric instrumentation require accurate predictions of fringe amplitudes, periods for transmission, diattenuation and retardance. The relevan…
In January 2012, the 10m South Pole Telescope (SPT) was equipped with a polarization-sensitive camera, SPTpol, in order to measure the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Measurements of the polarization of the CMB at small angular scales (~several arcminutes) can detect the gravitational lensing of the CMB by large scale structure and constrain the sum of the neutrino masses. At large angular scales (~few degrees) CMB measurements can constrain the energy scale of Inflation. SPTpol is a two-color mm-wave camera that consists of 180 polarimeters at 90 GHz and 588 …
Overview and status of BICEP Array's BA4-90/150 CMB polarimeter
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian（天体物理中心，哈佛与史密森尼学会）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学物理与天文学院）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理学与宇宙学研究所）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（SLAC国家加速器实验室）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学物理与天文系）；Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院物理系）；Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati（辛辛那提大学物理系）；Department of Physics, Stanford University（斯坦福大学物理系）；Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院喷气推进实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；High-Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室高能物理部）；School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学物理与天文学院）；Service des Basses Températures, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique（低温服务处，法国原子能与替代能源委员会）；Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Iceland（冰岛大学理学院）；Department of Physics, Harvard University（哈佛大学物理系）；Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校物理系）；Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, DAMTP, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学DAMTP理论宇宙学中心）；Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge（卡弗里剑桥宇宙学研究所）；Department of Physics, Boston University（波士顿大学物理系）；Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学明尼苏达天体物理研究所）
BICEP/Keck XXII: Analysis of the South Pole Atmosphere for CMB Observations
Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（SLAC国家加速器实验室）；University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）；Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛与史密森尼天体物理中心）；University of New Mexico（新墨西哥大学）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；University of Cincinnati（辛辛那提大学）；Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院喷气推进实验室）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）
We present the results of a feasibility study, which examined deployment of a ground-based millimeter-wave polarimeter, tailored for observing the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to Isi Station in Greenland. The instrument for this study is based on lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) and an F/2.4 catoptric, crossed-Dragone telescope with a 500 mm aperture. The telescope is mounted inside the receiver and cooled to $<\,4$ K by a closed-cycle $^4$He refrigerator to reduce background loading on the detectors. Linearly polarized signals from the sky are modulated with a metal-…
We describe the design and performance of polarization selective antenna-coupled TES arrays that will be used in several upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments: SPIDER, BICEP-2/SPUD. The fully lithographic polarimeter arrays utilize planar phased-antennas for collimation (F/4 beam) and microstrip filters for band definition (25% bandwidth). These devices demonstrate high optical efficiency, excellent beam shapes, and well-defined spectral bands. The dual-polarization antennas provide well-matched beams and low cross polarization response, both important for high-fidelity polari…
The BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments are designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales of 2-4 degrees (l=50-100). This is the region in which the B-mode signal, a signature prediction of cosmic inflation, is expected to peak. BICEP2 was deployed to the South Pole at the end of 2009 and is in the middle of its third year of observing with 500 polarization-sensitive detectors at 150 GHz. The Keck Array was deployed to the South Pole at the end of 2010, initially with three receivers--each similar to BICEP2. An additional two receivers have been …
We have developed antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers for a wide range of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimetry experiments, including BICEP2, Keck Array, and the balloon borne SPIDER. These detectors have reached maturity and this paper reports on their design principles, overall performance, and key challenges associated with design and production. Our detector arrays repeatedly produce spectral bands with 20%-30% bandwidth at 95, 150, or 220~GHz. The integrated antenna arrays synthesize symmetric co-aligned beams with controlled side-lobe levels. Cross-polarized …
We discuss the design and expected performance of STRIP (STRatospheric Italian Polarimeter), an array of coherent receivers designed to fly on board the LSPE (Large Scale Polarization Explorer) balloon experiment. The STRIP focal plane array comprises 49 elements in Q band and 7 elements in W-band using cryogenic HEMT low noise amplifiers and high performance waveguide components. In operation, the array will be cooled to 20 K and placed in the focal plane of a $\sim 0.6$ meter telescope providing an angular resolution of $\sim1.5$ degrees. The LSPE experiment aims at large scale, high sensiti…
BICEP3 is a 550 mm-aperture refracting telescope for polarimetry of radiation in the cosmic microwave background at 95 GHz. It adopts the methodology of BICEP1, BICEP2 and the Keck Array experiments - it possesses sufficient resolution to search for signatures of the inflation-induced cosmic gravitational-wave background while utilizing a compact design for ease of construction and to facilitate the characterization and mitigation of systematics. However, BICEP3 represents a significant breakthrough in per-receiver sensitivity, with a focal plane area 5$\times$ larger than a BICEP2/Keck Array …
The Keck Array (SPUD) began observing the cosmic microwave background's polarization in the winter of 2011 at the South Pole. The Keck Array follows the success of the predecessor experiments Bicep and Bicep2, using five on-axis refracting telescopes. These have a combined imaging array of 2500 antenna-coupled TES bolometers read with a SQUID-based time domain multiplexing system. We will discuss the detector noise and the optimization of the readout. The achieved sensitivity of the Keck Array is 11.5 μK_(CMB)*sqrt{s} in the 2012 configuration.
BICEP3 is a 520 mm aperture, compact two-lens refractor designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz. Its focal plane consists of modularized tiles of antenna-coupled transition edge sensors (TESs), similar to those used in BICEP2 and the Keck Array. The increased per-receiver optical throughput compared to BICEP2/Keck Array, due to both its faster f/1.7 optics and the larger aperture, more than doubles the combined mapping speed of the BICEP/Keck program. The BICEP3 receiver was recently upgraded to a full complement of 20 tiles of detectors (2560 TE…
Optical characterization of the BICEP array 150 and 220/270GHz CMB polarimeters in the 2026 season
Boston University（波士顿大学）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（斯坦福直线加速器中心）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理与宇宙学研究所）；University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）；Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛史密森尼天体物理中心）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；University of Cincinnati（辛辛那提大学）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院喷气推进实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Argonne National Laboratory, High Energy Physics Division（阿贡国家实验室高能物理部）；University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学）；Service des Basses Temperatures, Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique（法国原子能委员会低温服务处）；University of Iceland（冰岛大学）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校格兰杰工程学院）；Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学明尼苏达天体物理研究所）
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a polarization sensitive upgrade to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. Located at an elevation of 5190 m, ACTPol measures the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature and polarization with arcminute-scale angular resolution. Calibration of the detector angles is a critical step in producing maps of the CMB polarization. Polarization angle offsets in the detector calibration can cause leakage in polarization from E to B modes and induce a spurious signal in the EB and TB cross correlations, which eliminates our ability to measure potent…
We analyze the effect of polarized diffuse emission in the calibration of wide-beam mm-wave polarimeters, when using the Crab Nebula as a reference source for both polarized brightness and polarization angle. We show that, for CMB polarization experiments aiming at detecting B-mode in a scenario with a tensor to scalar ratio $r \sim 0.001$, wide (a few degrees in diameter), precise ($σ_Q$ , $σ_U$ $\sim$ 20 $μ$$K_{CMB}$ arcmin), high angular resolution ($< \mathrm{FWHM}$) reference maps are needed to properly take into account the effects of diffuse polarized emission and avoid significant bias…
Precision measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization require extreme control of instrumental systematics. In a companion paper we have presented cosmological constraints from observations with the BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments up to and including the 2015 observing season (BK15), resulting in the deepest CMB polarization maps to date and a statistical sensitivity to the tensor-to-scalar ratio of $σ(r) = 0.020$. In this work we characterize the beams and constrain potential systematic contamination from main beam shape mismatch at the three BK15 frequencies (95, 150, and…
Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT-1) is the first CMB degree-scale polarimeter to be deployed on the Tibetan plateau at 5,250m above sea level. AliCPT-1 is a 90/150 GHz 72 cm aperture, two-lens refracting telescope cooled down to 4 K. Alumina lenses, 800mm in diameter, image the CMB in a 33.4° field of view on a 636mm wide focal plane. The modularized focal plane consists of dichroic polarization-sensitive Transition-Edge Sensors (TESes). Each module includes 1,704 optically active TESes fabricated on a 150mm diameter silicon wafer. Each TES array is read out with a microwave multiplexing…
We describe the development of an ambient-temperature continuously-rotating half-wave plate (HWP) for study of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization by the POLARBEAR-2 (PB2) experiment. Rapid polarization modulation suppresses 1/f noise due to unpolarized atmospheric turbulence and improves sensitivity to degree-angular-scale CMB fluctuations where the inflationary gravitational wave signal is thought to exist. A HWP modulator rotates the input polarization signal and therefore allows a single polarimeter to measure both linear polarization states, eliminating systematic errors as…
