The BICEP2 CMB polarization experiment

• Main Authors: Ogburn, R. W., IV, Aikin, R. W., Bock, J. J., Bonetti, J. A., Brevik, J. A., Dowell, C. D., Filippini, J. P., Golwala, S. R., Hristov, V. V., Lange, A. E., Orlando, A., Runyan, M. C., Staniszewski, Z. K., Teply, G. P.
• Other Authors: Holland, Wayne S., Zmuidzinas, Jonas
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 2010
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://authors.library.caltech.edu/71600/; https://authors.library.caltech.edu/71600/1/77411G_1.pdf; https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161031-081454194

The Bicep2 telescope is designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background on angular scales near 2-4 degrees, near the expected peak of the B-mode polarization signal induced by primordial gravitational waves from inflation. Bicep2 follows the success of Bicep, which has set the most sensitive current limits on B-modes on 2-4 degree scales. The experiment adopts a new detector design in which beam-defining slot antennas are coupled to TES detectors photolithographically patterned in the same silicon wafer, with multiplexing SQUID readout. Bicep2 takes advantage of this design's higher focal-plane packing density, ease of fabrication, and multiplexing readout to field more detectors than Bicep1, improving mapping speed by nearly a factor of 10. Bicep2 was deployed to the South Pole in November 2009 with 500 polarization-sensitive detectors at 150 GHz, and is funded for two seasons of observation. The first months' data demonstrate the performance of the Caltech/JPL antenna-coupled TES arrays, and two years of observation with Bicep2 will achieve unprecedented sensitivity to B-modes on degree angular scales.