151 research outputs found
A Large-Diameter Hollow-Shaft Cryogenic Motor Based on a Superconducting Magnetic Bearing for Millimeter-Wave Polarimetry
In this paper we present the design and measured performance of a novel
cryogenic motor based on a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). The motor is
tailored for use in millimeter-wave half-wave plate (HWP) polarimeters, where a
HWP is rapidly rotated in front of a polarization analyzer or
polarization-sensitive detector. This polarimetry technique is commonly used in
cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization studies. The SMB we use is
composed of fourteen yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) disks and a contiguous
neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) ring magnet. The motor is a hollow-shaft motor
because the HWP is ultimately installed in the rotor. The motor presented here
has a 100 mm diameter rotor aperture. However, the design can be scaled up to
rotor aperture diameters of approximately 500 mm. Our motor system is composed
of four primary subsystems: (i) the rotor assembly, which includes the NdFeB
ring magnet, (ii) the stator assembly, which includes the YBCO disks, (iii) an
incremental encoder, and (iv) the drive electronics. While the YBCO is cooling
through its superconducting transition, the rotor is held above the stator by a
novel hold and release mechanism (HRM). The encoder subsystem consists of a
custom-built encoder disk read out by two fiber optic readout sensors. For the
demonstration described in this paper, we ran the motor at 50 K and tested
rotation frequencies up to approximately 10 Hz. The feedback system was able to
stabilize the the rotation speed to approximately 0.4%, and the measured rotor
orientation angle uncertainty is less than 0.15 deg. Lower temperature
operation will require additional development activities, which we will
discuss
Revealing Cosmic Rotation
Cosmological Birefringence (CB), a rotation of the polarization plane of
radiation coming to us from distant astrophysical sources, may reveal parity
violation in either the electromagnetic or gravitational sectors of the
fundamental interactions in nature. Until only recently this phenomenon could
be probed with only radio observations or observations at UV wavelengths.
Recently, there is a substantial effort to constrain such non-standard models
using observations of the rotation of the polarization plane of cosmic
microwave background (CMB) radiation. This can be done via measurements of the
-modes of the CMB or by measuring its TB and EB correlations which vanish in
the standard model. In this paper we show that correlations-based
estimator is the best for upcoming polarization experiments. The based
estimator surpasses other estimators because it has the smallest noise and of
all the estimators is least affected by systematics. Current polarimeters are
optimized for the detection of -mode polarization from either primordial
gravitational waves or by large scale structure via gravitational lensing. In
the paper we also study optimization of CMB experiments for the detection of
cosmological birefringence, in the presence of instrumental systematics, which
by themselves are capable of producing correlations; potentially mimicking
CB.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
The Detector System for the Stratospheric Kinetic Inductance Polarimeter (SKIP)
The Stratospheric Kinetic Inductance Polarimeter (SKIP) is a proposed
balloon-borne experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background, the
cosmic infrared background and Galactic dust emission by observing 1133 square
degrees of sky in the Northern Hemisphere with launches from Kiruna, Sweden.
The instrument contains 2317 single-polarization, horn-coupled, aluminum
lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKID). The LEKIDs will be
maintained at 100 mK with an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. The
polarimeter operates in two configurations, one sensitive to a spectral band
centered on 150 GHz and the other sensitive to 260 and 350 GHz bands. The
detector readout system is based on the ROACH-1 board, and the detectors will
be biased below 300 MHz. The detector array is fed by an F/2.4 crossed-Dragone
telescope with a 500 mm aperture yielding a 15 arcmin FWHM beam at 150 GHz. To
minimize detector loading and maximize sensitivity, the entire optical system
will be cooled to 1 K. Linearly polarized sky signals will be modulated with a
metal-mesh half-wave plate that is mounted at the telescope aperture and
rotated by a superconducting magnetic bearing. The observation program consists
of at least two, five-day flights beginning with the 150 GHz observations.Comment: J Low Temp Phys DOI 10.1007/s10909-013-1014-3 The final publication
is available at link.springer.co
Measuring primordial gravitational waves from CMB B-modes in cosmologies with generalized expansion histories
We evaluate our capability to constrain the abundance of primordial tensor
perturbations in cosmologies with generalized expansion histories in the epoch
of cosmic acceleration. Forthcoming satellite and sub-orbital experiments
probing polarization in the CMB are expected to measure the B-mode power in CMB
polarization, coming from PGWs on the degree scale, as well as gravitational
lensing on arcmin scales; the latter is the main competitor for the measurement
of PGWs, and is directly affected by the underlying expansion history,
determined by the presence of a DE component. In particular, we consider early
DE possible scenarios, in which the expansion history is substantially modified
at the epoch in which the CMB lensing is most relevant. We show that the
introduction of a parametrized DE may induce a variation as large as 30% in the
ratio of the power of lensing and PGWs on the degree scale. We find that
adopting the nominal specifications of upcoming satellite measurements the
constraining power on PGWs is weakened by the inclusion of the extra degrees of
freedom, resulting in a reduction of about 10% of the upper limits on r in
fiducial models with no GWs, as well as a comparable increase in the error bars
in models with non-zero r. Moreover, we find that the inclusion of sub-orbital
CMB experiments, capable of mapping the B-mode power up to the angular scales
affected by lensing, can restore the forecasted performances with a
cosmological constant. Finally, we show how the combination of CMB data with
Type Ia SNe, BAO and Hubble constant allows to constrain simultaneously r and
the DE quantities in the parametrization we consider, consisting of present
abundance and first redshift derivative of the energy density. We compare this
study with results obtained using the forecasted lensing potential measurement
precision from CMB satellite observations, finding consistent results.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication by JCAP. Modified
version after the referee's comment
A LEKID-based CMB instrument design for large-scale observations in Greenland
We present the results of a feasibility study, which examined deployment of a
ground-based millimeter-wave polarimeter, tailored for observing the cosmic
microwave background (CMB), to Isi Station in Greenland. The instrument for
this study is based on lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) and
an F/2.4 catoptric, crossed-Dragone telescope with a 500 mm aperture. The
telescope is mounted inside the receiver and cooled to K by a
closed-cycle He refrigerator to reduce background loading on the detectors.
Linearly polarized signals from the sky are modulated with a metal-mesh
half-wave plate that is rotated at the aperture stop of the telescope with a
hollow-shaft motor based on a superconducting magnetic bearing. The modular
detector array design includes at least 2300 LEKIDs, and it can be configured
for spectral bands centered on 150~GHz or greater. Our study considered
configurations for observing in spectral bands centered on 150, 210 and
267~GHz. The entire polarimeter is mounted on a commercial precision rotary air
bearing, which allows fast azimuth scan speeds with negligible vibration and
mechanical wear over time. A slip ring provides power to the instrument,
enabling circular scans (360 degrees of continuous rotation). This mount, when
combined with sky rotation and the latitude of the observation site, produces a
hypotrochoid scan pattern, which yields excellent cross-linking and enables
34\% of the sky to be observed using a range of constant elevation scans. This
scan pattern and sky coverage combined with the beam size (15~arcmin at
150~GHz) makes the instrument sensitive to in the angular
power spectra
Developmental milestones in earlychildhood and genetic liability toneurodevelopmental disorders
Background: Timing of developmental milestones, such as age at first walking, is associated with later diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, its relationship to genetic risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in the general population is unknown. Here, we investigate associations between attainment of early-life language and motor development milestones and genetic liability to autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and schizophrenia.
Methods: We use data from a genotyped sub-set (N = 25699) of children in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). We calculate polygenic scores (PGS) for autism, ADHD, and schizophrenia and predict maternal reports of children's age at first walking, first words, and first sentences, motor delays (18 months), and language delays and a generalised measure of concerns about development (3 years). We use linear and probit regression models in a multi-group framework to test for sex differences.
Results: We found that ADHD PGS were associated with earlier walking age (ÎČ = â0.033, padj < 0.001) in both males and females. Additionally, autism PGS were associated with later walking (ÎČ = 0.039, padj = 0.006) in females only. No robust associations were observed for schizophrenia PGS or between any neurodevelopmental PGS and measures of language developmental milestone attainment.
Conclusions: Genetic liabilities for neurodevelopmental disorders show some specific associations with the age at which children first walk unsupported. Associations are small but robust and, in the case of autism PGS, differentiated by sex. These findings suggest that early-life motor developmental milestone attainment is associated with genetic liability to ADHD and autism in the general population
Prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and associations with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in children
Background: Prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may be a risk factor for neurodevelopmental deficits and disorders, but evidence is inconsistent. Objectives: We investigated whether prenatal exposure to PFAS were associated with childhood diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: This study was based on the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study and included n = 821 ADHD cases, n = 400 ASD cases and n = 980 controls. Diagnostic cases were identified by linkage with the Norwegian Patient Registry. In addition, we used data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. The study included the following PFAS measured in maternal plasma sampled mid-pregnancy: Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid (PFHpS), and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). Relationships between individual PFAS and ADHD or ASD diagnoses were examined using multivariable adjusted logistic regression models. We also tested for possible non-linear exposure-outcome associations. Further, we investigated the PFAS mixture associations with ASD and ADHD diagnoses using a quantile-based g-computation approach. Results: Odds of ASD was significantly elevated in PFOA quartile 2 [OR = 1.71 (95% CI: 1.20, 2.45)] compared to quartile 1, and PFOA appeared to have a non-linear, inverted U-shaped dose-response relationship with ASD. PFOA was also associated with increased odds of ADHD, mainly in quartile 2 [OR = 1.54 (95% CI: 1.16, 2.04)] compared to quartile 1, and displayed a non-linear relationship in the restricted cubic spline model. Several PFAS (PFUnDA, PFDA, and PFOS) were inversely associated with odds of ADHD and/or ASD. Some of the associations were modified by child sex and maternal education. The overall PFAS mixture was inversely associated with ASD [OR = 0.76 (95% CI: 0.64, 0.90)] as well as the carboxylate mixture [OR = 0.79 (95% CI: 0.68, 0.93)] and the sulfonate mixture [OR = 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73, 0.96)]. Conclusion: Prenatal exposure to PFOA was associated with increased risk of ASD and ADHD in children. For some PFAS, as well as their mixtures, there were inverse associations with ASD and/or ADHD. However, the inverse associations reported herein should not be interpreted as protective effects, but rather that there could be some unresolved confounding for these relationships. The epidemiologic literature linking PFAS exposures with neurodevelopmental outcomes is still inconclusive, suggesting the need for more research to elucidate the neurotoxicological potential of PFAS during early development
Estimating the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the effect of residual foreground contamination
We consider future balloon-borne and ground-based suborbital experiments
designed to search for inflationary gravitational waves, and investigate the
impact of residual foregrounds that remain in the estimated cosmic microwave
background maps. This is achieved by propagating foreground modelling
uncertainties from the component separation, under the assumption of a
spatially uniform foreground frequency scaling, through to the power spectrum
estimates, and up to measurement of the tensor to scalar ratio in the parameter
estimation step. We characterize the error covariance due to subtracted
foregrounds, and find it to be subdominant compared to instrumental noise and
sample variance in our simulated data analysis. We model the unsubtracted
residual foreground contribution using a two-parameter power law and show that
marginalization over these foreground parameters is effective in accounting for
a bias due to excess foreground power at low . We conclude that, at least
in the suborbital experimental setups we have simulated, foreground errors may
be modeled and propagated up to parameter estimation with only a slight
degradation of the target sensitivity of these experiments derived neglecting
the presence of the foregrounds.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
Supreme Audit Institutions and public value:demonstrating relevance
Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) have an important role in ensuring public sector accountability; their main activities being managing the audit of public sector entitiesâ financial statements and assessing probity/compliance, providing advice to parliamentary committees, and undertaking performance audits. Standards issued by the International Organization of SAIs encourage SAIs to recognize the value they deliver through their activities and to demonstrate that to citizens, Parliament, and other stakeholders. The recognition of the need to be democratically accountable for efficiency and effectiveness is one aspect of public value, which is also concerned with the just use of authority (Moore, 2013). The purpose of this article is to develop the components of a SAI's public value and, through a comparative international study, to analyze how SAIsâ report on the public value they deliver. Analyzing reporting against the model developed in this article indicates that SAIs reporting prioritizes critiques to increase public sector efficiency and effectiveness, rather than government policy. In addition, it finds SAIs generally fail to discuss any negative consequences of their work. SAIs are encouraged to develop new ways to demonstrate their ongoing relevance
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