EBEX: a balloon-borne CMB polarization experiment

Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt, Aboobaker, Asad M., Ade, Peter A. R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-0401, Aubin, Francois, Baccigalupi, Carlo, Bao, Chaoyun, Borrill, Julian, Cantalupo, Christopher, Chapman, Daniel, Didier, Joy, Dobbs, Matt, Grain, Julien, Grainger, William F., Hanany, Shaul, Hillbrand, Seth, Hubmayr, Johannes, Jaffe, Andrew, Johnson, Bradley, Jones, Terry, Kisner, Theodore, Klein, Jeff, Korotkov, Andrei, Leach, Sam, Lee, Adrian, Levinson, Lorne, Limon, Michele, MacDermid, Kevin, Matsumura, Tomotake, Meng, Xiaofan, Miller, Amber, Milligan, Michael, Pascale, Enzo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3242-8154, Polsgrove, Daniel, Ponthieu, Nicolas, Raach, Kate, Sagiv, Ilan, Smecher, Graeme, Stivoli, Federico, Stompor, Radek, Tran, Huan, Tristram, Matthieu, Tucker, Gregory S., Vinokurov, Yury, Yadav, Amit, Zaldarriaga, Matias and Zilic, Kyle 2010. EBEX: a balloon-borne CMB polarization experiment. Presented at: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V, San Diego, CA, USA, 29 June-2 July 2010. Published in: Holland, Wayne S. and Zmuidzinas, Jonas eds. Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V. Proceedings of SPIE (7741) Bellingham W.A.: SPIE, 77411C. 10.1117/12.857138

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Abstract

EBEX is a NASA-funded balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Observations will be made using 1432 transition edge sensor (TES) bolometric detectors read out with frequency multiplexed SQuIDs. EBEX will observe in three frequency bands centered at 150, 250, and 410 GHz, with 768, 384, and 280 detectors in each band, respectively. This broad frequency coverage is designed to provide valuable information about polarized foreground signals from dust. The polarized sky signals will be modulated with an achromatic half wave plate (AHWP) rotating on a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) and analyzed with a fixed wire grid polarizer. EBEX will observe a patch covering ~1% of the sky with 8' resolution, allowing for observation of the angular power spectrum from l = 20 to 1000. This will allow EBEX to search for both the primordial B-mode signal predicted by inflation and the anticipated lensing B-mode signal. Calculations to predict EBEX constraints on r using expected noise levels show that, for a likelihood centered around zero and with negligible foregrounds, 99% of the area falls below r = 0.035. This value increases by a factor of 1.6 after a process of foreground subtraction. This estimate does not include systematic uncertainties. An engineering flight was launched in June, 2009, from Ft. Sumner, NM, and the long duration science flight in Antarctica is planned for 2011. These proceedings describe the EBEX instrument and the North American engineering flight.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Engineering ; Equipment and services ; Magnetism ; Multiplexing ; Polarization ; Polarizers ; Sensors ; Superconductors ; Wave plates
Publisher:	SPIE
ISBN:	9780819482310
ISSN:	0277-786X
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2022 09:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/33686

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