Probing the Early Universe with Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Anisotropies and Bringing our Research Into New York City Classrooms

Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud博士被授予美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在哥伦比亚大学开展研究和教育项目。测量宇宙微波背景（CMB）极化各向异性的当代和未来实验有望提供对宇宙起源，组成和动力学的前所未有的理解，以及可能支持暴胀理论的最有力证据。为了推进尖端CMB偏振实验的设计，Reichborn-Kjennerud博士将在哥伦比亚大学的一个新的专用测试设施中领导一项倡议，以表征下一代偏振敏感的辐射测量探测器。reichborne - kjennerud博士还将在南极飞行活动和E和B实验（EBEX）的数据分析中发挥关键作用，EBEX是一种领先的CMB偏振仪器。EBEX在其高频覆盖范围和对各种尺度的灵敏度的结合中是独一无二的；这些特征将使EBEX能够对星系极化尘埃前景的振幅进行前所未有的测量，这将在未来CMB仪器的数据分析中发挥关键作用。此外，EBEX将探测尚未探测到的CMB偏振b模式信号，这些信号是在宇宙的前一秒的一小部分时间内留下的，以及由于前景物质的透镜效应而在后期留下的。Reichborn-Kjennerud还将把针对纽约市公立高中学生和教师的暑期拓展项目扩展为一个全年项目，并将在其他机构推广。在每年的项目中，一名教师和两名学生将在夏季加入实验室，完成一个动手研究项目，并了解天体物理学、实验室和大学环境。EBEX时间表将使实验成为一个理想的平台，在这个平台上，教师和学生将参与构建实验硬件和科学团队的工作，参与者将获得从实验室到南极洲和太空边缘的第一手实验经验。每位教师将与Reichborn-Kjennerud博士合作，制定一项行动计划，通过与学生一起分析科学数据、学生参观实验室和实验室成员参观学校等学年活动，将研究经验带回课堂。

Dr. Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Columbia University. Contemporary and future experiments that measure cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropies hold the promise of providing an unprecedented understanding of the origin, composition and dynamics of the universe, as well as possibly the strongest evidence yet supporting inflation theory. To push forward the design of a cutting-edge CMB polarization experiment, Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will lead an initiative to characterize the next generation of polarization-sensitive bolometric detectors in a new dedicated testing facility at Columbia University. Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will also play a key role in the Antarctic flight campaign and data analysis of the E and B Experiment (EBEX), a leading CMB polarization instrument. EBEX is unique among its contemporaries in its combination of high-frequency coverage and sensitivity to a wide range of scales; these characteristics will allow EBEX to make unprecedented measurements of the amplitude of the galactic polarized dust foreground, which will play a critical role in the analysis of data from future CMB instruments. Additionally, EBEX will probe both of the yet-undetected CMB polarization B-mode signals that were imprinted during the first fraction of a second of the universe, and at late times due to the lensing of foreground matter.Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will also expand an ongoing summer outreach program for New York City public high school students and teachers into a full-year program that would be replicable at other institutions. During each year of the program, one teacher and two students will join the lab during the summer to complete a hands-on research project and to learn about astrophysics and about the lab and university environments. The EBEX timeline will allow the experiment to act as an ideal platform on which the teachers and students will participate in building experimental hardware and working in scientific teams, and the participants will gain first-hand experience with an experiment as it travels from the lab, to Antarctica, and to the edge of space. Each teacher will work with Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud to produce an action plan for bringing the research experience back to the classroom through school-year activities such as analysis of science data with students, student visits to the lab, and visits by lab members to the school.