2017 upgrade and performance of BICEP3: a 95GHz refracting telescope for degree-scale CMB polarization
Abstract
BICEP3 is a 520mm aperture on-axis refracting telescope observing the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95GHz in search of the B-mode signal originating from inflationary gravitational waves. BICEP3's focal plane is populated with modularized tiles of antenna-coupled transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers. BICEP3 was deployed to the South Pole during 2014-15 austral summer and has been operational since. During the 2016-17 austral summer, we implemented changes to optical elements that lead to better noise performance. We discuss this upgrade and show the performance of BICEP3 at its full mapping speed from the 2017 and 2018 observing seasons. BICEP3 achieves an order-of-magnitude improvement in mapping speed compared to a Keck 95GHz receiver. We demonstrate noise performance of the BICEP3 receiver.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1808.00567,
title = {2017 upgrade and performance of BICEP3: a 95GHz refracting telescope for degree-scale CMB polarization},
author = {Jae Hwan Kang and P. A. R. Ade and Z. Ahmed and R. W. Aikin and K. D. Alexander and D. Barkats and S. J. Benton and C. A. Bischof and J. J. Bock and R. Bowens-Rubin and J. A. Brevik and I. Buder and E. Bullock and V. Buza and J. Connors and J. Cornelison and B. P. Crill and M. Crumrine and M. Dierickx and L. Duband and C. Dvorkin and J. P. Filippini and S. Fliescher and J. Grayson and G. Hall and M. Halpern and S. Harrison and S. R. Hildebrandt and G. C. Hilton and H. Hui and K. D. Irwin and K. S. Karkare and E. Karpel and J. P. Kaufman and B. G. Keating and S. Kefeli and S. A. Kernasovskiy and J. M. Kovac and C. L. Kuo and K. Lau and N. A. Larsen and E. M. Leitch and M. Lueker and K. G. Megerian and L. Moncelsi and T. Namikawa and H. T. Nguyen and R. O'Brient and R. W. Ogburn and S. Palladino and C. Pryke and B. Racine and S. Richter and R. Schwarz and A. Schillaci and C. D. Sheehy and A. Soliman and T. St. Germaine and Z. K. Staniszewski and B. Steinbach and R. V. Sudiwala and G. P. Teply and K. L. Thompson and J. E. Tolan and C. Tucker and A. D. Turner and C. Umilta and A. G. Vieregg and A. Wandui and A. C. Weber and D. V. Wiebe and J. Willmert and C. L. Wong and W. L. K. Wu and H. Yang and K. W. Yoon and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.00567},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
12 pages, 9 figures, Published in Proc. SPIE. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation Conference 10708: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XI, June 2018