CLOVER - A new instrument for measuring the B-mode polarization of the CMB

• Main Authors: Taylor, A. C., Challinor, A., Goldie, D., Grainge, K., Jones, M. E., Lasenby, A. N., Withington, S., Yassin, G., Gear, W. K., Piccirillo, L., Ade, P., Mauskopf, P. D., Maffei, B., Pisano, G.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11573/1586217

We describe the design and expected performance of Clover, a new instrument designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The proposed instru- ment will comprise three independent telescopes operating at 90, 150 and 220 GHz and is planned to be sited at Dome C, Antarctica. Each telescope will feed a focal plane array of 128 background-limited detectors and will measure polarized signals over angular multipoles 20<1000. The unique design of the telescope and careful control of systematics should enable the B-mode signature of gravitational waves to be measured to a lensing-confusion-limited tensor-to-scalar ratio r ∼ 0.005.