The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry
The E and B Experiment (EBEX) was a long-duration balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter that flew over Antarctica in 2012. We describe the experiment's optical system, receiver, and polarimetric approach and report on their in-flight performance. EBEX had three frequency b...
Published in: | The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series |
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American Astronomical Society
2018
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Online Access: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/ https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf |
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The E and B Experiment (EBEX) was a long-duration balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter that flew over Antarctica in 2012. We describe the experiment's optical system, receiver, and polarimetric approach and report on their in-flight performance. EBEX had three frequency bands centered on 150, 250, and 410 GHz. To make efficient use of limited mass and space, we designed a 115 cm2 sr high-throughput optical system that had two ambient temperature mirrors and four antireflection-coated polyethylene lenses per focal plane. All frequency bands shared the same optical train. Polarimetry was achieved with a continuously rotating achromatic half-wave plate (AHWP) that was levitated with a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). This is the first use of an SMB in astrophysics. Rotation stability was 0.45% over a period of 10 hr, and angular position accuracy was 0fdg01. The measured modulation efficiency was above 90% for all bands. To our knowledge the 109% fractional bandwidth of the AHWP was the broadest implemented to date. The receiver, composed of one lens and the AHWP at a temperature of 4 K, the polarizing grid and other lenses at 1 K, and the two focal planes at 0.25 K, performed according to specifications, giving focal plane temperature stability with a fluctuation power spectrum that had a 1/f knee at 2 mHz. EBEX was the first balloon-borne instrument to implement technologies characteristic of modern CMB polarimeters, including high-throughput optical systems, and large arrays of transition edge sensor bolometric detectors with multiplexed readouts. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aboobaker, Asad M. Ade, Peter Araujo, Derek Aubin, François Baccigalupi, Carlo Bao, Chaoyun Chapman, Daniel Didier, Joy Dobbs, Matt Geach, Christopher Grainger, Will Hanany, Shaul Helson, Kyle Hillbrand, Seth Hubmayr, Johannes Jaffe, Andrew Johnson, Bradley Jones, Terry Klein, Jeff Korotkov, Andrei Lee, Adrian Levinson, Lorne Limon, Michele MacDermid, Kevin Matsumura, Tomotake Miller, Amber D. Milligan, Michael Raach, Kate Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt Sagiv, Ilan Savini, Giorgio Spencer, Locke Tucker, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Westbrook, Benjamin Young, Karl Zilic, Kyle |
spellingShingle |
Aboobaker, Asad M. Ade, Peter Araujo, Derek Aubin, François Baccigalupi, Carlo Bao, Chaoyun Chapman, Daniel Didier, Joy Dobbs, Matt Geach, Christopher Grainger, Will Hanany, Shaul Helson, Kyle Hillbrand, Seth Hubmayr, Johannes Jaffe, Andrew Johnson, Bradley Jones, Terry Klein, Jeff Korotkov, Andrei Lee, Adrian Levinson, Lorne Limon, Michele MacDermid, Kevin Matsumura, Tomotake Miller, Amber D. Milligan, Michael Raach, Kate Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt Sagiv, Ilan Savini, Giorgio Spencer, Locke Tucker, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Westbrook, Benjamin Young, Karl Zilic, Kyle The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
author_facet |
Aboobaker, Asad M. Ade, Peter Araujo, Derek Aubin, François Baccigalupi, Carlo Bao, Chaoyun Chapman, Daniel Didier, Joy Dobbs, Matt Geach, Christopher Grainger, Will Hanany, Shaul Helson, Kyle Hillbrand, Seth Hubmayr, Johannes Jaffe, Andrew Johnson, Bradley Jones, Terry Klein, Jeff Korotkov, Andrei Lee, Adrian Levinson, Lorne Limon, Michele MacDermid, Kevin Matsumura, Tomotake Miller, Amber D. Milligan, Michael Raach, Kate Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt Sagiv, Ilan Savini, Giorgio Spencer, Locke Tucker, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Westbrook, Benjamin Young, Karl Zilic, Kyle |
author_sort |
Aboobaker, Asad M. |
title |
The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
title_short |
The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
title_full |
The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
title_fullStr |
The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
title_full_unstemmed |
The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
title_sort |
ebex balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry |
publisher |
American Astronomical Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/ https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf Aboobaker, Asad M., Ade, Peter https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A0479492.html orcid:0000-0002-5127-0401 orcid:0000-0002-5127-0401, Araujo, Derek, Aubin, François, Baccigalupi, Carlo, Bao, Chaoyun, Chapman, Daniel, Didier, Joy, Dobbs, Matt, Geach, Christopher, Grainger, Will, Hanany, Shaul, Helson, Kyle, Hillbrand, Seth, Hubmayr, Johannes, Jaffe, Andrew, Johnson, Bradley, Jones, Terry, Klein, Jeff, Korotkov, Andrei, Lee, Adrian, Levinson, Lorne, Limon, Michele, MacDermid, Kevin, Matsumura, Tomotake, Miller, Amber D., Milligan, Michael, Raach, Kate, Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt, Sagiv, Ilan, Savini, Giorgio https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A063414R.html, Spencer, Locke https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A1694515.html, Tucker, Carole https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A016987K.html orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918 orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918, Tucker, Gregory S. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A016987K.html orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918 orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918, Westbrook, Benjamin, Young, Karl and Zilic, Kyle 2018. The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry. Astrophysical Journal Supplement 239 (1) , p. 7. 10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365%2Faae434 file https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf doi:10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 |
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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series |
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ftunivcardiff:oai:https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk:117847 2023-05-15T13:56:49+02:00 The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry Aboobaker, Asad M. Ade, Peter Araujo, Derek Aubin, François Baccigalupi, Carlo Bao, Chaoyun Chapman, Daniel Didier, Joy Dobbs, Matt Geach, Christopher Grainger, Will Hanany, Shaul Helson, Kyle Hillbrand, Seth Hubmayr, Johannes Jaffe, Andrew Johnson, Bradley Jones, Terry Klein, Jeff Korotkov, Andrei Lee, Adrian Levinson, Lorne Limon, Michele MacDermid, Kevin Matsumura, Tomotake Miller, Amber D. Milligan, Michael Raach, Kate Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt Sagiv, Ilan Savini, Giorgio Spencer, Locke Tucker, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Westbrook, Benjamin Young, Karl Zilic, Kyle 2018-11-06 application/pdf https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/ https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf en eng American Astronomical Society https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf Aboobaker, Asad M., Ade, Peter https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A0479492.html orcid:0000-0002-5127-0401 orcid:0000-0002-5127-0401, Araujo, Derek, Aubin, François, Baccigalupi, Carlo, Bao, Chaoyun, Chapman, Daniel, Didier, Joy, Dobbs, Matt, Geach, Christopher, Grainger, Will, Hanany, Shaul, Helson, Kyle, Hillbrand, Seth, Hubmayr, Johannes, Jaffe, Andrew, Johnson, Bradley, Jones, Terry, Klein, Jeff, Korotkov, Andrei, Lee, Adrian, Levinson, Lorne, Limon, Michele, MacDermid, Kevin, Matsumura, Tomotake, Miller, Amber D., Milligan, Michael, Raach, Kate, Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt, Sagiv, Ilan, Savini, Giorgio https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A063414R.html, Spencer, Locke https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A1694515.html, Tucker, Carole https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A016987K.html orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918 orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918, Tucker, Gregory S. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A016987K.html orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918 orcid:0000-0002-1851-3918, Westbrook, Benjamin, Young, Karl and Zilic, Kyle 2018. The EBEX balloon-borne experiment-optics, receiver, and polarimetry. Astrophysical Journal Supplement 239 (1) , p. 7. 10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365%2Faae434 file https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/117847/1/The_EBEX_Collaboration_2018_ApJS_239_7.pdf doi:10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivcardiff https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aae434 2022-10-27T22:46:09Z The E and B Experiment (EBEX) was a long-duration balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter that flew over Antarctica in 2012. We describe the experiment's optical system, receiver, and polarimetric approach and report on their in-flight performance. EBEX had three frequency bands centered on 150, 250, and 410 GHz. To make efficient use of limited mass and space, we designed a 115 cm2 sr high-throughput optical system that had two ambient temperature mirrors and four antireflection-coated polyethylene lenses per focal plane. All frequency bands shared the same optical train. Polarimetry was achieved with a continuously rotating achromatic half-wave plate (AHWP) that was levitated with a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). This is the first use of an SMB in astrophysics. Rotation stability was 0.45% over a period of 10 hr, and angular position accuracy was 0fdg01. The measured modulation efficiency was above 90% for all bands. To our knowledge the 109% fractional bandwidth of the AHWP was the broadest implemented to date. The receiver, composed of one lens and the AHWP at a temperature of 4 K, the polarizing grid and other lenses at 1 K, and the two focal planes at 0.25 K, performed according to specifications, giving focal plane temperature stability with a fluctuation power spectrum that had a 1/f knee at 2 mHz. EBEX was the first balloon-borne instrument to implement technologies characteristic of modern CMB polarimeters, including high-throughput optical systems, and large arrays of transition edge sensor bolometric detectors with multiplexed readouts. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Cardiff University: ORCA (Online Research @ Cardiff) The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 239 1 7 |