BICEP/Keck XV: The Bicep3 Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimeter and the First Three-year Data Set

• Published in: The Astrophysical Journal
• Main Authors: Ade, P.A. R., Ahmed, Z., Amiri, M., Barkats, D., Thakur, R.Basu, Bischoff, C.A., Beck, D., Bock, J.J., Boenish, H., Bullock, E., Buza, V., Cheshire, J.R., Connors, J., Cornelison, J., Crumrine, M., Cukierman, A., Denison, E.V., Dierickx, M., Duband, L., Eiben, M., Fatigoni, S., Filippini, J.P., Fliescher, S., Goeckner-Wald, N., Goldfinger, D.C., Grayson, J., Grimes, P., Hall, G., Halal, G., Halpern, M., Hand, E., Harrison, S., 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., Lennox, A., Megerian, K.G., Minutolo, L.
• Other Authors: 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), Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Bicep/Keck
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: cosmic background radiation; polarization; beam; width; noise; temperature; infrared; pole; optical; bolometer; performance; optics; [PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03603214; https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4886

International audience We report on the design and performance of the Bicep3 instrument and its first three-year data set collected from 2016 to 2018. Bicep3 is a 52 cm aperture refracting telescope designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on degree angular scales at 95 GHz. It started science observation at the South Pole in 2016 with 2400 antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor bolometers. The receiver first demonstrated new technologies such as large-diameter alumina optics, Zotefoam infrared filters, and flux-activated SQUIDs, allowing ∼10× higher optical throughput compared to the Keckdesign. Bicep3 achieved instrument noise equivalent temperatures of 9.2, 6.8, and 7.1 and reached Stokes Q and U map depths of 5.9, 4.4, and 4.4 μK arcmin in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively. The combined three-year data set achieved a polarization map depth of 2.8 μK arcmin over an effective area of 585 square degrees, which is the deepest CMB polarization map made to date at 95 GHz.