Polarization Calibration of the BICEP3 CMB polarimeter at the South Pole

• Published in: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy X
• Main Authors: Cornelison, J., Ade, P.A.R., Ahmed, Z., Amiri, M., Barkats, D., Thakur, R. Basu, Bischoff, C.A., Bock, J.J., Boenish, H., Bullock, E., Buza, V., Cheshire, J.R., Connors, J., Crumrine, M., Cukierman, A., Denison, E., Dierickx, M., Duband, L., Eiben, M., Fatigoni, S., Filippini, J.P., Fliescher, S., Goeckner-Wald, N., Goldfinger, D.C., Grayson, J.A., Grimes, P., Hall, G., Halpern, M., Harrison, S.A., Henderson, S., Hildebrandt, S.R., Hilton, G.C., Hubmayr, J., Hui, H., Irwin, K.D., Kang, J., Karkare, K.S., Karpel, E., Kefeli, S., Kernasovskiy, S.A., Kovac, J.M., Kuo, C.L., Lau, K., Leitch, E.M., Megerian, K.G., Minutolo, L., Moncelsi, L., Nakato, Y., Namikawa, T., Nguyen, H.T., O'Brient, R., Ogburn, R.W., Palladino, S., Precup, N., Prouve, T., Pryke, C., Racine, B., Reintsema, C.D., Richter, S., Schillaci, A., Schmitt, B.L., Schwarz, R., Sheehy, C.D., Soliman, A., Germaine, T.St., Steinbach, B., Sudiwala, R.V., Teply, G.P., Thompson, K.L., Tolan, J.E., Tucker, C., Turner, A.D., Umiltà, C., Vieregg, A.G., Wandui, A., Weber, A.C., Wiebe, D.V., Willmert, J., Wong, C.L., Wu, W.L.K., Yang, E., Yoon, K.W., Young, E., Yu, C., Zeng, L., Zhang, C., Zhang, S.
• Other Authors: Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Département des Systèmes Basses Températures (DSBT ), Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Grenoble (IRIG), Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Laboratoire des Cryoréfrigérateurs et Cryogénie Spatiale (LCCS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Grenoble (IRIG)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Cosmology; Cosmic Microwave Background; Birefringence; Polarization; Calibration; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03115849; https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562905

International audience The BICEP3 CMB Polarimeter is a small-aperture refracting telescope located at the South Pole and is specifically designed to search for the possible signature of inflationary gravitational waves in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The experiment measures polarization on the sky by differencing the signal of co-located, orthogonally polarized antennas coupled to Transition Edge Sensor (TES) detectors. We present precise measurements of the absolute polarization response angles and polarization efficiencies for nearly all of BICEP3's ~800 functioning polarization-sensitive detector pairs from calibration data taken in January 2018. Using a Rotating Polarized Source (RPS), we mapped polarization response for each detector over a full 360 degrees of source rotation and at multiple telescope boresight rotations from which per-pair polarization properties were estimated. In future work, these results will be used to constrain signals predicted by exotic physical models such as Cosmic Birefringence.