The BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments are designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales of 2-4 degrees (l=50-100). This is the region in which the B-mode signal, a signature prediction of cosmic inflation, is expected to peak. BICEP2 was deployed to the South Pole at the end of 2009 and is in the middle of its third year of observing with 500 polarization-sensitive detectors at 150 GHz. The Keck Array was deployed to the South Pole at the end of 2010, initially with three receivers--each similar to BICEP2. An additional two receivers have been added during the 2011-12 summer. We give an overview of the two experiments, report on substantial gains in the sensitivity of the two experiments after post-deployment optimization, and show preliminary maps of CMB polarization from BICEP2.
@article{arxiv.1208.0638,
title = {BICEP2 and Keck Array operational overview and status of observations},
author = {R. W. Ogburn and P. A. R. Ade and R. W. Aikin and M. Amiri and S. J. Benton and C. A. Bischoff and J. J. Bock and J. A. Bonetti and J. A. Brevik and E. Bullock and B. Burger and G. Davis and C. D. Dowell and L. Duband and J. P. Filippini and S. Fliescher and S. R. Golwala and M. Gordon and M. Halpern and M. Hasselfield and G. Hilton and V. V. Hristov and H. Hui and K. Irwin and J. P. Kaufman and B. G. Keating and S. A. Kernasovskiy and J. M. Kovac and C. L. Kuo and E. M. Leitch and M. Lueker and T. Montroy and C. B. Netterfield and H. T. Nguyen and R. O'Brient and A. Orlando and C. L. Pryke and C. Reintsema and S. Richter and J. E. Ruhl and M. C. Runyan and R. Schwarz and C. D. Sheehy and Z. K. Staniszewski and R. V. Sudiwala and G. P. Teply and K. Thompson and J. E. Tolan and A. D. Turner and A. G. Vieregg and D. V. Wiebe and P. Wilson and C. L. Wong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.0638},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Presented at SPIE Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, July 6, 2012. To be published in Proceedings of SPIE Volume 8452