Research Infrastructure: MRI: Development of a Small Aperture Telescope Pathfinder to Advance Studies of the Polarized Cosmic Microwave Background

这个主要研究仪器项目将有助于回答一个大问题：“宇宙是如何开始的？”它通过建造和测试一种灵敏的仪器来测量早期宇宙过程中充满空间的电磁发射。这种发射最好在微波波长测量，所以它被称为宇宙微波背景（CMB）。一个小型的原型仪器，被称为pSAT，将被用来评估许多已经开发出来的技术，这些技术是为了将来更精确地测量CMB的大型实验而开发的。这个研究小组的成员将与教育工作者和公众一起观察/测量宇宙的起源。在更大的CMB实验项目中，该项目将为研究生和本科生提供研究经验，并为博士后研究人员提供培训。寻找宇宙暴胀的直接证据是当今天文学和物理学的一个重要目标。暴胀模型预测了原始引力波的存在，它为宇宙微波背景（CMB）的极化提供了独特的“b模式”模式，并为这些模型提供了关键的测试。为了进行必要的测量，已经改进了一系列仪器。该项目将开发和测试pSAT，这是一种集成探测器和光学器件的CMB偏振计，为下一代CMB- s4项目开发，现有的BICEP阵列硬件已经过现场验证。pSAT将使用新的95 GHz/155 GHz双频双偏振原型探测器，其原型光学元件结合宽带AR涂层，在BICEP阵列接收器低温恒温器中，该低温恒温器将适应包括100mK绝热退磁冰箱。工程、性能评价和代表性数据将提供给CMB-S4项目。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This Major Research Instrumentation project will help answer the big question: “how did the universe begin?” It does so by building and testing a sensitive instrument that would measure electromagnetic emission that fills space as a result of processes in the early universe. This emission is best measured at microwave wavelengths, so it is referred to as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A small protype instrument, referred to as pSAT, will be built to evaluate many of the technologies that have been developed for a future, large experiment to measure the CMB far more precisely. The members of this research team will engage with educators and the public on observing/measuring the origins of the universe. Within the larger CMB experiment program, this project will provide research experience for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as training for postdoctoral researchers.Finding direct evidence for cosmic inflation is an important goal in astronomy and physics today. Inflation models predict the existence of primordial gravitational waves, which impart a unique “B-mode” pattern to the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and provide a key test of such models. There have been an improving series of instruments to make the needed measurements. This project will develop and test pSAT, a CMB polarimeter integrating detectors and optics developed for the next-generation CMB-S4 project with existing field-proven BICEP Array hardware. pSAT will utilize new 95 GHz/155 GHz dual-band dual-polarization prototype detectors, with prototype optics incorporating wide-band AR coatings, in a BICEP array receiver cryostat that will be adapted to include a 100mK adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. The engineering, performance evaluation, and representative data will be provided to the CMB-S4 project.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.