QUEST: A Ground-Based mm-Wave Telescope for CMB Polarization Studies

2004 • 2004mmu..sympE...8R

Authors • Rusholme, B. • Quest Collaboration

Abstract • The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is predicted to exhibit two forms of polarization structure, each encoding important cosmological information. Advances in telescope design and detector sensitivity will allow these phenomena to be mapped in the next few years. QUEST (Q and U Extra-galactic Sub-mm Telescope) is a new experiment, due to start observing in early 2004, dedicated to CMB polarization studies. The telescope is a ground-based, 2.64-m Cassegrain which will be equipped with an array of 31 polarization-sensitive bolometer pairs split between 100 and 150 GHz observation. The instrument includes several features that will be critical for the removal of systematic effects such as a rotating achromatic waveplate and axisymmetric rotatable optics. QUEST is designed to produce a high signal-to-noise measurement of at the EE signal and the lensed BB polarization structure given current theoretical predictions.

Links

• POSTSCRIPT http://www.obs.carnegiescience.edu/ociw/symposia/series/symposium2/ms/rusholme.ps.gz