Analysis of Data from the ACBAR experiment

对宇宙微波背景(CMB)的观测为了解早期宇宙提供了一个独特的窗口，并在宇宙学向精密科学的转变中发挥着关键作用。CMB是研究仍远未被充分利用的宇宙的强大工具。这项提议寻求支持继续分析弧线宇宙学测辐射热计阵列接收器(ACBAR)的数据。Acbar是阿蒙森-斯科特南极站2.1米Viper望远镜上运行的16个元素230微开尔文测辐射热计接收器。ACBAR充分利用南极冬季良好的大气条件，拍摄了CMB的图像，其灵敏度和分辨率超过了目前气球和卫星望远镜的能力。Acbar完成了最后一季的观测，并于2005年12月退役。根据2001-2003年的观测，ACBAR制作了CMB在南极可见的最低尘埃对比度天空100平方度范围内的高分辨率波动地图。然而，在2004年和2005年的观测季节，ACBAR将早期观测的天空覆盖范围扩大了两倍，包括2003年长时间气球回旋镖飞行中拍摄的同一天空区域的深度图像。有了这些观测，就有可能交叉校准回旋镖、ACBAR和NASA的WMAP航天器实验，不确定度低于2%。为了实现CMB观测的全部潜力，以限制运行的光谱指数等宇宙学参数，这种统一和精确的校准是必要的。这项拟议工作的学术价值是多方面的。这项提议将支持开发和实施用于分析大型陆基CMB数据集的新算法。这些算法将直接应用于未来雄心勃勃的实验，如南极10米望远镜。对结果的全面解释需要对引力透镜和次级各向异性的影响进行精确的计算。这项提案中概述的工作将支持三名研究生完成博士论文，并将继续让本科生研究人员参与创新研究。拟议的工作将对宇宙学领域产生广泛的影响，因为它将产生对从事从暴胀到星系团演化等各种主题研究的更大宇宙学社区至关重要的测量结果。与WMAP实验的结果相结合，ACBAR将提供对宇宙学参数的精确约束，如暗物质密度、运行光谱指数和物质密度起伏的大小。这些测量将在支持或驳斥新兴的标准宇宙学模型方面发挥关键作用。Acbar还将对次级各向异性施加令人兴奋的新限制，例如来自遥远星系团的Sunyaev-Zel‘dovich效应，并应该能够首次探测到CMB的引力透镜。通过这一努力，ACBAR将成为下一代实验结果分析的探路者。

Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) provide a unique window to the early Universe and are playing a key role in the transformation of Cosmology to a precise science. The CMB is a powerful tool for the study of the Universe that is still far from being fully exploited. This proposal seeks support for continued analysis of data from the Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver (ACBAR). ACBAR is a 16-element 230 microKelvin bolometer receiver that operated on the 2.1-m VIPER telescope at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Making full use of the excellent atmospheric conditions in the Austral winter at the South Pole, ACBAR has produced images of the CMB with sensitivity and resolution that exceed the capabilities of current balloon and satellite based telescopes. ACBAR accomplished it final season of observations and was decommissioned in December 2005. From the 2001-2003 observations, ACBAR produced high-resolution maps of the CMB fluctuations over a hundred square degrees of the lowest dust-contrast sky visible from the South Pole. However, during the 2004 and 2005 observational seasons, ACBAR tripled the sky coverage of earlier observations, including a deep image of same region of sky that was imaged in the long-duration balloon BOOMERanG 2003 flight. With these observations, it will be possible to cross-calibrate the BOOMERanG, ACBAR, and NASA's WMAP spacecraft experiments with an uncertainty of less than 2%. This uniform and precise calibration is necessary in order to realize the full potential of CMB observations to constrain cosmological parameters such as a running spectral index. The intellectual merit of the proposed work is multifaceted. This proposal will support the development and implementation of new algorithms for the analysis of large ground-based CMB datasets. These algorithms will be directly applicable to future ambitious experiments such as the South Pole 10-m Telescope. A full interpretation of the results requires a precise accounting of the effects of gravitational lensing and secondary anisotropies. The work outlined in this proposal will support the completion of PhD theses by three graduate students and will continue to involve undergraduate researchers in innovative research. The proposed work will have broad impact on the field of cosmology by producing measurements that are essential for the larger cosmology community engaged in the study of a diverse range of topics from inflation to the evolution of galaxy clusters. When combined with results from the WMAP experiment, ACBAR will provide precise constraints on cosmological parameters such as, dark matter density, running spectral index, and the size of matter density fluctuations. These measurements will play a key role in either supporting or refuting the emerging standard cosmological model. ACBAR will also place exciting new constraints on secondary anisotropies such as the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from distant galaxy clusters, and should be able to make the first detection of gravitational lensing of the CMB. Through this effort, ACBAR will serve as a pathfinder for the analysis of the results form the next generation of experiments.