Probing Fundamental Physics with the Spider Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Experiment

蜘蛛长期气球（LDB）项目的主要目标是研究早期宇宙的起源，并在远远超出地球粒子加速器范围的能量尺度上探索基础物理。虽然该项目的主要目标是通过实验验证最简单的格兰特统一理论（GUT）规模的通货膨胀模型或排除它们，但Spider还将解决以下两个重要的科学目标：（a）增进我们对银河系内星际介质的了解，特别是弥漫的高纬度尘埃的性质及其与银河系大规模磁场的相互作用，以及（B）提供对宇宙微波背景（CMB）偏振的弱引力透镜的明确测量，该弱引力透镜是由物质沿着视线到最后散射表面的积分分布引起的。该奖项旨在解决分析Spider南极飞行数据的挑战，主要关注将最大限度地提高大规模Spider数据集的科学回报的核心能力。该项目的目标是：（i）开发一个大规模可扩展的最佳（在最小二乘意义上）信号估计工具，（ii）通过模拟开发和测试利用Spider，WMAP和Planck HFI数据集组合的实用前景去除工具。如提案中所述，信号估计和前景污染问题是蜘蛛科学的核心。这个合作项目的更广泛的影响是在其高度的学生和博士后参与项目硬件测试和数据处理分析。该奖项支持博士后学者。

The primary objective of the Spider Long Duration Balloon (LDB) project is to study the genesis of the early Universe and probing fundamental physics at energy scales that are far beyond the reach of terrestrial particle accelerators. While the main goal of the project is to validate experimentally the simplest Grant Unified Theory (GUT) scale Inflationary models or to exclude them, Spider will also address the following two important science goals: (a) improve our understanding of the interstellar medium in our own Milky Way Galaxy, especially the nature of diffuse high latitude dust and its interactions with the large scale magnetic field of the Galaxy, and (b) provide an unambiguous measurement of the weak gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization resulting from the integrated distribution of matter along the line of sight to the surface of last scattering. This award addresses the challenges of analyzing data from the Spider Antarctic flight, mostly focusing on the core capabilities that will maximize the science return from the massive Spider dataset. The project's objectives are: (i) to develop a massively scalable optimal (in the least squares sense) signal estimation facility, and (ii) to develop and test through simulations the practical foreground removal tools that leverage the combined Spider, WMAP, and Planck HFI datasets. As described in the proposal, the problems of signal estimation and foreground contamination are central to the Spider science. The broader impacts of this collaborative project are in its high degree of student and postdoc involvement in the project hardware tests and data processing analyses. The award supports a postdoctoral scholar.