Probing Fundamental Physics with the Spider Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Experiment

蜘蛛长时间气球(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能力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在实验上验证最简单的格兰特统一理论(GUT)尺度的膨胀模型或将其排除在外，但SPIDER也将解决下列两个重要的科学目标：(A)提高我们对银河系星际介质的认识，特别是了解扩散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；(B)明确测量由于物质沿视线到最后散射表面的综合分布而产生的宇宙微波背景(CMB)极化的微弱引力透镜。该奖项解决了分析蜘蛛南极飞行数据的挑战，主要集中在将从海量蜘蛛数据集获得最大科学回报的核心能力上。该项目的目标是：(I)开发可大规模扩展的最佳(最小二乘)信号估计工具，以及(Ii)开发并通过模拟测试利用SPIDER、WMAP和Planck HFI组合数据集的实用前景去除工具。正如提案中所描述的，信号估计和前景污染问题是蜘蛛科学的核心问题。这个合作项目的更广泛的影响是它的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。

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.