QUBIC is a unique instrument that crosses the barriers between classical imaging architectures and interferometry taking advantage from both for high sensitivity and systematics mitigation. The scientific target is the detection of the primordial gra
vitational waves imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background which are the proof of inflation, holy grail of modern cosmology. In this paper, we show the latest advances in the development of the architecture and the sub-systems of the first module of this instrument to be deployed in Dome Charlie Concordia base - Antarctica in 2015.
We discuss in this paper the problem of the Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) in the light of ongoing or future observations to be performed with the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. High angular resolution observations of the A
ME will enable astronomers to drastically improve the knowledge of the AME mechanisms as well as the interplay between the different constituents of the interstellar medium in our galaxy. Extragalactic observations of the AME have started as well, and high resolution is even more important in this kind of observations. When cross-correlating with IR-dust emission, high angular resolution is also of fundamental importance in order to obtain unbiased results. The choice of the observational frequency is also of key importance in continuum observation. We calculate a merit function that accounts for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in AME observation given the current state-of-the-art knowledge and technology. We also include in our merit functions the frequency dependence in the case of multifrequency observations. We briefly mention and compare the performance of four of the largest radiotelescopes in the world and hope the observational programs in each of them will be as intense as possible.
Atmospheric emission is a dominant source of disturbance in ground-based astronomy at mm wavelengths. The Antarctic plateau is recognized to be an ideal site for mm and sub-mm observations, and the French/Italian base of Dome C is among the best site
s on Earth for these observations. In this paper we present measurements, performed using the BRAIN-pathfinder experiment, at Dome C of the atmospheric emission in intensity and polarization at 150GHz, one of the best observational frequencies for CMB observations when considering cosmic signal intensity, atmospheric transmission, detectors sensitivity, and foreground removal. Careful characterization of the air-mass synchronous emission has been performed, acquiring more that 380 elevation scans (i.e. skydip) during the third BRAIN-pathfinder summer campaign in December 2009/January 2010. The extremely high transparency of the Antarctic atmosphere over Dome Concordia is proven by the very low measured optical depth: <tau_I>=0.050 pm 0.003 pm 0.011 where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic error. Mid term stability, over the summer campaign, of the atmosphere emission has also been studied. Adapting the radiative transfer atmosphere emission model am to the particular conditions found at Dome C, we also infer the level of the PWV content of the atmosphere, notoriously the main source of disturbance in millimetric astronomy (<PWV>=0.77 +/- 0.06 + 0.15 - 0.12 mm). Upper limits on the air-mass correlated polarized signal are also placed for the first time. The degree of circular polarization of atmospheric emission is found to be lower than 0.2% (95%CL), while the degree of linear polarization is found to be lower than 0.1% (95%CL). These limits include signal-correlated instrumental spurious polarization.
Spider is a balloon-borne experiment that will measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background over a large fraction of a sky at 1 degree resolution. Six monochromatic refracting millimeter-wave telescopes with large arrays of antenna-cou
pled transition-edge superconducting bolometers will provide system sensitivities of 4.2 and 3.1 micro K_cmb rt s at 100 and 150 GHz, respectively. A rotating half-wave plate will modulate the polarization sensitivity of each telescope, controlling systematics. Bolometer arrays operating at 225 GHz and 275 GHz will allow removal of polarized galactic foregrounds. In a 2-6 day first flight from Alice Springs, Australia in 2010, Spider will map 50% of the sky to a depth necessary to improve our knowledge of the reionization optical depth by a large factor.
Spider is a long-duration, balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure large scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization with very high sensitivity and control of systematics. The instrument will map over half the sky with degree angular r
esolution in I, Q and U Stokes parameters, in four frequency bands from 96 to 275 GHz. Spiders ultimate goal is to detect the primordial gravity wave signal imprinted on the CMB B-mode polarization. One of the challenges in achieving this goal is the minimization of the contamination of B-modes by systematic effects. This paper explores a number of instrument systematics and observing strategies in order to optimize B-mode sensitivity. This is done by injecting realistic-amplitude, time-varying systematics in a set of simulated time-streams. Tests of the impact of detector noise characteristics, pointing jitter, payload pendulations, polarization angle offsets, beam systematics and receiver gain drifts are shown. Spiders default observing strategy is to spin continuously in azimuth, with polarization modulation achieved by either a rapidly spinning half-wave plate or a rapidly spinning gondola and a slowly stepped half-wave plate. Although the latter is more susceptible to systematics, results shown here indicate that either mode of operation can be used by Spider.
