Probing Fundamental Physics with the Spider Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Experiment

通过蜘蛛南极长时间气球实验探索基础物理

• 批准号: 1043515
• 负责人: William Jones
• 金额: $ 25.79万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-15 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1043515&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Probing; Fundamental; Physics; Spider; Antarctic

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.

蜘蛛长持续气球（LDB）项目的主要目标是研究早期宇宙的起源，并在远远超出地面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）尺度暴胀模型或排除它们，但Spider还将解决以下两个重要的科学目标：（a）提高我们对银河系星际介质的理解，特别是弥漫的高纬度尘埃的性质及其与银河系大尺度磁场的相互作用，以及（b）提供弱引力的明确测量 宇宙微波背景（CMB）偏振的透镜效应是由物质沿视线到最后散射表面的综合分布而产生的。该奖项解决了分析蜘蛛南极飞行数据的挑战，主要关注能够最大限度地提高海量蜘蛛数据集科学回报的核心功能。该项目的目标是：(i) 开发大规模可扩展的最优（最小二乘意义上）信号估计工具，以及 (ii) 通过模拟开发和测试实用的前景去除工具，该工具利用了 Spider、WMAP 和 Planck HFI 数据集的组合。正如提案中所述，信号估计和前景污染问题是蜘蛛科学的核心。该合作项目的更广泛影响在于学生和博士后对项目硬件测试和数据处理分析的高度参与。该奖项支持一名博士后学者。