Design Development of Innovative High Throughput CMB Telescope for the South Pole

寻找原始引力波（PGW，可能由宇宙膨胀产生）的背景是当今宇宙学和物理学中最引人注目的目标之一。PGW的探测将为地球实验无法达到的能量尺度上的基础物理学打开一扇新的窗口，并提供对引力量子性质的洞察。这种探测或宇宙微波背景（CMB）中PGW信号的足够强的上限将使我们对目前流行的宇宙起源范式，即宇宙膨胀理论有新的认识。拟议的研究活动还将通过将研究生和本科生教育与技术开发、天文观测和CMB数据的科学分析相结合，为培养下一代科学家作出贡献。该奖项是为了支持南极三反射镜天文望远镜（SPTMA）的设计和开发，这是一种创新的毫米波望远镜，通过提供实现这一具有挑战性的目标所需的显着吞吐量和必要的系统控制，将大大推进对PGW的搜索。SPTMA对于推进超灵敏CMB测量计划至关重要，它提供的视场比目前的南极10米望远镜（3.5平方米）大20倍。（摄氏度）通过利用更大的探测器阵列和改进的原始灵敏度。SPTMA的主单片反射镜的5米孔径直径将在2毫米波长下提供1.6角分的分辨率，这与下一代测量主和次级CMB各向异性的要求非常匹配，包括宇宙中所有质量分布的CMB透镜重建。除了能够测量最遥远和奇异的信号（特别是PGW在CMB上诱导的B模式信号）外，SPTMA还将为我们的银河系通过高红移宇宙的多波长和多信使天文学和天体物理学做出关键贡献。该项目推进了NSF宇宙大创意窗口的目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The search for a background of Primordial Gravitational Waves (PGW, presumably generated by cosmic inflation) is one of the most compelling goals in cosmology and physics today. A detection of PGW would open a new window to fundamental physics at an energy scale inaccessible to terrestrial experiments and provide insight into the quantum nature of gravity. This detection or a sufficiently strong upper limit on the PGW signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would give us new insights into the currently favored paradigm for the origin of the Universe, the theory of cosmic inflation. The proposed research activity will also contribute to training the next generation of scientists by integrating graduate and undergraduate education with the technology development, astronomical observations, and scientific analyses CMB data. This award is to support the design and development of the South Pole three mirror anastigmat telescope (SPTMA), which is an innovative millimeter-wave telescope that would significantly advance the search for PGWs by providing the significant throughput and necessary control of systematics needed to achieve this challenging goal. SPTMA is critical to the advancement of the program of ultra-sensitive CMB measurements, providing a field of view 20 times larger than that of the current South Pole 10-m Telescope (3.5 sq. deg.) by utilizing larger arrays of detectors and improved raw sensitivity. The 5-meter aperture diameter of the SPTMA's primary monolithic mirror will provide 1.6 arcminute resolution at 2-mm wavelength, which is well matched to the requirements for next-generation measurements of primary and secondary CMB anisotropy, including CMB-lensing reconstruction of the distribution of all the mass in the Universe. In addition to enabling measurements of the most distant and exotic signals (especially B-mode signal induced on the CMB by PGWs), the SPTMA will enable key contributions to multi-wavelength and multi-messenger astronomy and astrophysics from our galaxy through the high redshift Universe. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.