A High Throughput CMB Polarization Receiver with Dual-Frequency-Band Bolometric Pixels

最成功的宇宙模型包括在大爆炸后的最初几分之一秒内的一段巨大膨胀时期。早期宇宙的这种“相变”解释了许多关键的观测结果，包括宇宙的极端平坦性，可观测宇宙中因果关系不相关区域的非常相似的特性，以及缺乏磁单极子。暴胀的一个重要预测是引力波留下的极化“手性”，引力波被认为在最后一次光子散射时就存在了。寻找这种“b模”偏振信号是对膨胀的基本测试，是对相变运行的能量尺度的诊断，也是ASTRO2010“新世界、新视野”天文学和天体物理学调查确定的未来十年的关键科学主题之一。艾德里安博士李的加州大学伯克利分校和合作者在美国以及其他地方在加拿大,英国,日本计划一个实验首次发现和探索b型极化使用专用的无线电天线高在智利的阿塔卡玛高原和最先进的7588像素测辐射热计数组绘制天空150和220 GHz的双频率较高的灵敏度和一个数量级速度比目前的实验。北极星1号试点项目现已完成，并在智利场址获得了初步数据。北极星2号项目在科学上有很好的动机，在技术和管理基础上也同样有充分的理由。通过该项目取得的技术发展将对包括亚毫米波段在内的天文探测的其他波长区域具有重要意义。博士后和学生的参与包括在开发和测试的重要元素中，延续了加州大学伯克利分校在射电天文学硬件和技术方面的强大培训传统。北极星-2项目的开发资金由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。

The most successful model of the universe involves a period of immense expansion during the first small fraction of a second following the Big Bang. This "phase-change" in the early universe explains a number of key observations, including the extreme flatness of the universe, the very similar properties of causally unrelated regions of the observable universe, and the lack of magnetic monopoles. An important prediction of inflation is the "handedness" of polarization imprinted by gravitational waves that are thought to have existed at the time of the last photon scattering. Searching for this "B-mode" polarization signal is a fundamental test of inflation, diagnostic of the energy scale over which the phase change operated, and one of the key science themes identified for the next decade by the ASTRO2010 survey New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Dr. Adrian Lee of the University of California Berkeley and collaborators elsewhere within the U.S. as well as in Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan plan an experiment to detect and explore for the first time the B-mode polarization using a dedicated radio antenna high on the Atacama Plateau in Chile and a state-of-the-art 7,588 pixel bolometer array to map the sky at the dual frequencies of 150 and 220 GHz with higher sensitivity and an order of magnitude faster than current experiments. The project, POLARBEAR-2, is very well motivated scientifically and equally well justified on a technical and management footing by the pilot project POLARBEAR-1, now complete and obtaining initial data at the Chilean site. Technical developments made through the project will be important at other wavelength regions of astronomical detection, including the sub-mm. Postdoctoral and student involvement is included in important elements of the development and testing, continuing the strong tradition of training in the hardware and techniques of radio astronomy at U.C. Berkeley.Funding for the development of the POLARBEAR-2 project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.