The CMB Polarization Observer (CLOVER)

• Main Authors: Yassin, G., Ade, P. A. R., Calderon, C., Challinor, A. D., Dunlop, L., Gear, W. K., Goldie, D. J., Grainge, K. J. B., Griffin, M. J., Jones, M. E., Lasenby, A. N., Maffei, B., Mauskopf, P. D., Melhuish, S. J., Orlando, A., Piccirillo, L., Pisano, G., Taylor, A. C., Withington, S.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Cosmic Microwave Background radiation; B-Modes; Instrumentation; Polarimetry; Millimetre waves; antartic*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11573/1586207

We describe the design and performance of a new fully-funded instrument, CLOVER, to measure the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The instrument comprises three independent telescopes operating at 90, 150 and 220 GHz and is planned to be sited at Dome C, Antartica. Each telescope will fed by a focal plane array of 256 horns with background limited detectors and will measure the polarization signal over angular multipoles 20< /<1000. The unique design of the telescope and extremely low systematics should enable the B-mode signature from gravitational waves to be measured, or constrained to a lensing confusing limited tensor-to-scalar ratio r 0.005.