A cryogenic rotation stage with a large clear aperture for the half-wave plates in the Spider instrument

We describe the cryogenic half-wave plate rotation mechanisms built for and used in Spider, a polarization-sensitive balloon-borne telescope array that observed the Cosmic Microwave Background at 95 GHz and 150 GHz during a stratospheric balloon flight from Antarctica in January 2015. The mechanisms operate at liquid helium temperature in flight. A three-point contact design keeps the mechanical bearings relatively small but allows for a large (305 mm) diameter clear aperture. A worm gear driven by a cryogenic stepper motor allows for precise positioning and prevents undesired rotation when the motors are depowered. A custom-built optical encoder system monitors the bearing angle to an absolute accuracy of +/- 0.1 degrees. The system performed well in Spider during its successful 16 day flight.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Published in Review of Scientific Instruments. v2 includes reviewer changes and longer literature revie

Pointing control for the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We present the technology and control methods developed for the pointing system of the SPIDER experiment. SPIDER is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to detect the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. We describe the two main components of the telescope's azimuth drive: the reaction wheel and the motorized pivot. A 13 kHz PI control loop runs on a digital signal processor, with feedback from fibre optic rate gyroscopes. This system can control azimuthal speed with < 0.02 deg/s RMS error. To control elevation, SPIDER uses stepper-motor-driven linear actuators to rotate the cryostat, which houses the optical instruments, relative to the outer frame. With the velocity in each axis controlled in this way, higher-level control loops on the onboard flight computers can implement the pointing and scanning observation modes required for the experiment. We have accomplished the non-trivial task of scanning a 5000 lb payload sinusoidally in azimuth at a peak acceleration of 0.8 deg/s$^2$, and a peak speed of 6 deg/s. We can do so while reliably achieving sub-arcminute pointing control accuracy.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Presented at SPIE Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, June 23, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 914

The POLARBEAR Experiment: Design and Characterization

We present the design and characterization of the POLARBEAR experiment. POLARBEAR is a millimeter-wave polarimeter that will measure the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. It was designed to have both the sensitivity and angular resolution to detect the expected B-mode polarization due to gravitational lensing at small angular scales while still enabling a search for the degree scale B-mode polarization caused by inflationary gravitational waves. The instrument utilizes the Huan Tran Telescope (HTT), a 2.5-meter primary mirror telescope, coupled to a unique focal plane of 1,274 antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors to achieve unprecedented sensitivity from angular scales of the experiment's 4 arcminute beam to several degrees. This dissertation focuses on the design, integration and characterization of the cryogenic receiver for the POLARBEAR instrument. The receiver cools the ∼20 cm focal plane to 0.25 Kelvin, with detector readout provided by a digital frequency-multiplexed SQUID system. The POLARBEAR receiver was been successfully deployed on the HTT for an engineering run in the Eastern Sierras of California and is currently deployed on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Dessert of Chile. We present results from lab tests done to characterize the instrument, from the engineering run and preliminary results from Chile

The POLARBEAR Experiment: Design and Characterization

We present the design and characterization of the POLARBEAR experiment. POLARBEAR is a millimeter-wave polarimeter that will measure the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. It was designed to have both the sensitivity and angular resolution to detect the expected B-mode polarization due to gravitational lensing at small angular scales while still enabling a search for the degree scale B- mode polarization caused by inflationary gravitational waves. The instrument utilizes the Huan Tran Telescope (HTT), a 2.5-meter primary mirror telescope, coupled to a unique focal plane of 1,274 antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors to achieve unprecedented sensitivity from angular scales of the experiment's 4 arcminute beam to several degrees. This dissertation focuses on the design, integration and characterization of the cryogenic receiver for the POLARBEAR instrument. The receiver cools the ∼ 20 cm focal plane to 0.25 Kelvin, with detector readout provided by a digital frequency- multiplexed SQUID system. The POLARBEAR receiver was been successfully deployed on the HTT for an engineering run in the Eastern Sierras of California and is currently deployed on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Dessert of Chile. We present results from lab tests done to characterize the instrument, from the engineering run and preliminary results from Chile

The POLARBEAR experiment

We present the design and characterization of the POLARBEAR experiment. POLARBEAR will measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales ranging from the experiment’s 3.5’ beam size to several degrees. The experiment utilizes a unique focal plane of 1,274 antenna-coupled, polarization sensitive TES bolometers cooled to 250 milliKelvin. Employing this focal plane along with stringent control over systematic errors, POLARBEAR has the sensitivity to detect the expected small scale B-mode signal due to gravitational lensing and search for the large scale B-mode signal from inflationary gravitational waves. POLARBEAR was assembled for an engineering run in the Inyo Mountains of California in 2010 and was deployed in late 2011 to the Atacama Desert in Chile. An overview of the instrument is presented along with characterization results from observations in Chile

POLARBEAR: Ultra-high Energy Physics with Measurements of CMB Polarization

International audiencePOLARBEAR is a ground-based experiment to measure polarization anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background. It is designed to have a combination of sensitivity, foreground mitigation, and rejection of systematic errors to search for the B-mode signature of Inflationary gravity waves over much of the parameter range suggested by simple power-law Inflation models. POLARBEAR is designed to detect a gravitational-wave signature with a tensor-to-scalar ratio r as low as 0.025 (95% confidence). POLARBEAR will also measure polarized lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background which will give valuable information on large-scale structure at z>1 and bound the total mass of the neutrinos. POLARBEAR will have a 3.5 meter primary meter giving it an angular resolution of 3.0' at its main observation frequency band centered at 150 GHz. The 250 mK focal plane design contains 637 dual-polarization pixels (1274 bolometers) that are coupled to the telescope using microlithographed planar antennas. The experiment will be sited in the Atacama Desert in Chile at 5000 meter (16,500 ft) altitude starting in 2009 after a prototype testing stage at Cedar Flats California. The first configuration of the experiment will observe at only one frequency band with the first season at 150 GHz and the second at 220 GHz. The optics will be upgraded to have simultaneous observations in those two bands in the third season of observations. POLARBEAR and QUIET will observe the same sky patches, and together they will have frequency bands at 30, 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz giving broad coverage of galactic foregrounds and a valuable cross-check by comparison of polarization maps. In POLARBEAR, polarization systematic errors are mitigated by a continuously rotating 50 K half-wave plate and an observation strategy that takes advantage of parallactic angle rotation to rotate the experiment relative to polarization patterns on the sky

Pre-flight integration and characterization of the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We present the results of integration and characterization of the SPIDER instrument after the 2013 pre-flight campaign. SPIDER is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to probe the primordial gravitational wave signal in the degree-scale $B$-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background. With six independent telescopes housing over 2000 detectors in the 94 GHz and 150 GHz frequency bands, SPIDER will map 7.5% of the sky with a depth of 11 to 14 $\mu$K$\cdot$arcmin at each frequency, which is a factor of $\sim$5 improvement over Planck. We discuss the integration of the pointing, cryogenic, electronics, and power sub-systems, as well as pre-flight characterization of the detectors and optical systems. SPIDER is well prepared for a December 2014 flight from Antarctica, and is expected to be limited by astrophysical foreground emission, and not instrumental sensitivity, over the survey region.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures. Presented at SPIE Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, June 26, 2014. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 915

Pre-flight integration and characterization of the SPIDER balloon-borne telescope

We present the results of integration and characterization of the Spider instrument after the 2013 pre-flight campaign. Spider is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to probe the primordial gravitational wave signal in the degree-scale B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background. With six independent telescopes housing over 2000 detectors in the 94 GHz and 150 GHz frequency bands, Spider will map 7.5% of the sky with a depth of 11 to 14 μK•arcmin at each frequency, which is a factor of ~5 improvement over Planck. We discuss the integration of the pointing, cryogenic, electronics, and power sub-systems, as well as pre-flight characterization of the detectors and optical systems. Spider is well prepared for a December 2014 flight from Antarctica, and is expected to be limited by astrophysical foreground emission, and not instrumental sensitivity, over the survey region