CLOVER: The CMB polarization observer

• Main Authors: Maffei, B., Ade, P. A R, Calderon, C., Challinor, A. D., De Bernardis, P., Dunlop, L., Gear, W. K., Giraud-Héraud, Y., Goldie, D. J., Grainge, K. J B, Isaak, K. G., Johnson, B., Jones, M. E., Lasenby, A. N., Mauskopf, P. D., Melhuish, S. J., Orlando, A., Piccirillo, L., Pisano, G., Taylor, A. C., Withington, S., Yassin, G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/81a2e478-aac2-49e6-a2f0-07545f5420a5; https://doi.org/10.1051/eas:2005039

We present a new, fully-funded ground-based instrument designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The concept is based on three independent sub-systems operating at 90, 150 and 220 GHz, each comprising a telescope and a focal plane of horn-coupled background-limited bolometers. This highly-sensitive experiment, planned to be based at Dome C station in Antarctica, is optimised to produce very low systematic effects. It will allow the detection of the CMB polarization over angular multipoles 20 <l <1000 accurately enough to measure the B-mode signature from gravitational waves to a lensing-confusion-limited tensor-to-scalar ratio r ∼ 0.005. © EAS, EDP Sciences 2005.