Characterization of the Atacama B-mode Search

S. M. Simon; S. Raghunathan; J. W. Appel; D. T. Becker; L. E. Campusano; H. M. Cho; T. Essinger-Hileman; S. P. Ho; K. D. Irwin; N. Jarosik; A. Kusaka; M. D. Niemack; G. W. Nixon; M. R. Nolta; L. A. Page; G. A. Palma; L. P. Parker; J. L. Sievers; S. T. Staggs; K. Visnjic

doi:10.1117/12.2055576

23 July 2014 Characterization of the Atacama B-mode Search

S. M. Simon, S. Raghunathan, J. W. Appel, D. T. Becker, L. E. Campusano, H. M. Cho, T. Essinger-Hileman, S. P. Ho, K. D. Irwin, N. Jarosik, A. Kusaka, M. D. Niemack, G. W. Nixon, M. R. Nolta, L. A. Page, G. A. Palma, L. P. Parker, J. L. Sievers, S. T. Staggs, K. Visnjic

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9153, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII; 91530Y (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055576
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The Atacama B-mode Search (ABS), which began observations in February of 2012, is a crossed-Dragone telescope located at an elevation of 5190 m in the Atacama Desert in Chile. ABS is searching for the B-mode polarization spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at large angular scales from multipole moments of ` ~ 50 ~ 500, a range that includes the primor- dial B-mode peak from inflationary gravity waves at ~ 100. The ABS focal plane consists of 240 pixels sensitive to 145 GHz, each containing two transition-edge sensor bolometers coupled to orthogonal polarizations with a planar ortho-mode transducer. An ambient-temperature con- tinuously rotating half-wave plate and 4 K optics make the ABS instrument unique. We discuss the characterization of the detector spectral responses with a Fourier transform spectrometer and demonstrate that the pointing model is adequate. We also present measurements of the beam from point sources and compare them with simulations.

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S. M. Simon, S. Raghunathan, J. W. Appel, D. T. Becker, L. E. Campusano, H. M. Cho, T. Essinger-Hileman, S. P. Ho, K. D. Irwin, N. Jarosik, A. Kusaka, M. D. Niemack, G. W. Nixon, M. R. Nolta, L. A. Page, G. A. Palma, L. P. Parker, J. L. Sievers, S. T. Staggs, and K. Visnjic "Characterization of the Atacama B-mode Search", Proc. SPIE 9153, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 91530Y (23 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055576

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