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THE Q/U IMAGING EXPERIMENT INSTRUMENT

Author(s): Bischoff, C; Brizius, A; Buder, I; Chinone, Y; Cleary, K; et al

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Abstract: The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) is designed to measure polarization in the cosmic microwave background, targeting the imprint of inflationary gravitational waves at large angular scales(similar to 1 degrees). Between 2008 October and 2010 December, two independent receiver arrays were deployed sequentially on a 1.4 m side-fed Dragonian telescope. The polarimeters that form the focal planes use a compact design based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) that provides simultaneous measurements of the Stokes parameters Q, U, and I in a single module. The 17-element Q-band polarimeter array, with a central frequency of 43.1 GHz, has the best sensitivity (69 mu Ks(1/2)) and the lowest instrumental systematic errors ever achieved in this band, contributing to the tensor-to-scalar ratio at r < 0.1. The 84-element W-band polarimeter array has a sensitivity of 87 mu Ks(1/2) at a central frequency of 94.5 GHz. It has the lowest systematic errors to date, contributing at r < 0.01. The two arrays together cover multipoles in the range l similar to 25-975. These are the largest HEMT-based arrays deployed to date. This article describes the design, calibration, performance, and sources of systematic error of the instrument.
Publication Date: 1-May-2013
Electronic Publication Date: 9-Apr-2013
Citation: Bischoff, C, Brizius, A, Buder, I, Chinone, Y, Cleary, K, Dumoulin, RN, Kusaka, A, Monsalve, R, Naess, SK, Newburgh, LB, Nixon, G, Reeves, R, Smith, KM, Vanderlinde, K, Wehus, IK, Bogdan, M, Bustos, R, Church, SE, Davis, R, Dickinson, C, Eriksen, HK, Gaier, T, Gundersen, JO, Hasegawa, M, Hazumi, M, Holler, C, Huffenberger, KM, Imbriale, WA, Ishidoshiro, K, Jones, ME, Kangaslahti, P, Kapner, DJ, Lawrence, CR, Leitch, EM, Limon, M, McMahon, JJ, Miller, AD, Nagai, M, Nguyen, H, Pearson, TJ, Piccirillo, L, Radford, SJE, Readhead, ACS, Richards, JL, Samtleben, D, Seiffert, M, Shepherd, MC, Staggs, ST, Tajima, O, Thompson, KL, Williamson, R, Winstein, B, Wollack, EJ, Zwart, JTL, Collaboration, QUIET. (2013). THE Q/U IMAGING EXPERIMENT INSTRUMENT. ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 768 (10.1088/0004-637X/768/1/9
DOI: doi:10.1088/0004-637X/768/1/9
ISSN: 0004-637X
Type of Material: Journal Article
Journal/Proceeding Title: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Version: Final published version. Article is made available in OAR by the publisher's permission or policy.



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