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

寻找原始引力波（PGW，可能是由宇宙膨胀产生的）的背景是当今宇宙学和物理学中最引人注目的目标之一。探测到PGW将打开一扇新的窗口，在地球实验无法达到的能量尺度上研究基础物理学，并提供对引力量子本质的洞察。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最受欢迎的宇宙起源范式——宇宙暴胀理论——有新的认识。拟议的研究活动还将通过将研究生和本科教育与技术发展、天文观测和科学分析CMB数据相结合，有助于培养下一代科学家。该合同是为了支持南极三镜消像差望远镜（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目标所需的重要吞吐量和必要的系统控制，将显著推进对pgw的搜索。SPTMA对于推进超灵敏的CMB测量计划至关重要，它提供的视野是目前南极10米望远镜（3.5平方英尺）的20倍。度)，利用更大的探测器阵列和提高原始灵敏度。SPTMA的主单片镜直径为5米，在2毫米波长下提供1.6弧分分辨率，这很好地满足了下一代测量主、次CMB各向异性的要求，包括对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最奇异的信号（特别是由PGWs在CMB上引起的b模式信号）之外，SPTMA还将为从我们的星系到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。这个项目推进了NSF宇宙大构想窗口的目标。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。

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.