The C-Band All Sky Survey: Separating the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background from Galactic Foregrounds

该项目将建造一个新的5 GHz无线电偏振计，并使用它进行c波段全天巡天（C-BASS），这是一种对总强度和线性极化敏感的整个天空的无线电巡天，仪器系统效应的破坏最小。调查的北部部分将使用欧文斯谷射电天文台现有的5.5米天线。一项平行的南方调查将通过未来的一个不同支持的项目进行。5 ghz C-BASS巡天将是对漫射星系发射的第一次巡天，其频率低到足以由同步辐射主导，但高到足以不受法拉第旋转效应的影响。它的主要科学目标是提高从宇宙微波背景（CMB）极化图中去除银河系前景信号的准确性。因此，它将为未来测量这种两极分化的实验提供关键支持，这些实验有望提供有关暴胀时代的关键信息。这项调查还将产生关于银河系内部星际介质、磁场和辐射机制的新结果。所得到的天空图将在北部调查完成后不久免费提供，对今后的任务规划应该非常有用。这项调查启动了加州理工学院、英国牛津大学和曼彻斯特大学以及南非罗德大学之间的合作，包括学生交换。研究小组将根据《新星》公共电视连续剧的档案制作教学工具，将天体物理学和宇宙学的兴奋和奇迹带入K-12课堂。

AST-0607857PearsonThis project will construct a new 5 GHz radio polarimeter and use it to conduct the C-Band All Sky Survey (C-BASS), a radio survey of the entire sky sensitive to total intensity and linear polarization, with minimal corruption by instrumental systematic effects. The northern part of the survey will use an existing 5.5-meter antenna at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. A parallel southern survey will be conducted through a future, differently supported, project. The 5-GHz C-BASS survey will be the first survey of diffuse Galactic emission at a frequency low enough to be dominated by synchrotron radiation but high enough to be uncorrupted by Faraday rotation effects. Its primary science goal is to improve the accuracy with which Galactic foreground signals can be removed from maps of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It will thus provide critical support for future experiments to measure that polarization, which is expected to provide key information about the epoch of inflation. The survey will also yield new results about the interstellar medium, magnetic field, and radiation mechanisms, inside the Galaxy.The resultant sky maps will be made freely available soon after the completion of the northern survey, and should be very useful for future mission planning. This survey starts a collaboration between Caltech, the Universities of Oxford and Manchester in the UK, and Rhodes University in South Africa, including student exchanges. The research team will be creating teaching tools based on archives from the Nova public television series, to bring the excitement and wonder of astrophysics and cosmology into the K-12 classroom.