POLARBEAR

The POLARBEAR CMB Polarization Experiment

The CMB polarization is one of the few tools we know of to probe physics at inflationary energy scales, where grand unified theories may manifest themselves. High sensitivity polarization anisotropy maps of the CMB have the potential to reveal the signature of inflationary gravity waves, generally regarded as the "smoking gun" of inflation.

POLARBEAR is a ground based 4m off-axis Gregorian telescope that will be sited on the Atacama Plateau in Chile. The focal plane houses ~1000 polarization sensitive antenna coupled TES detectors read out with the Digital Frequency Domain Multiplexer.

We're building the POLARBEAR experiment in collaboration with UC Berkeley (lead institution, PI Adrian Lee), LBNL, UC San Diego, UC Colorado, Imperial College London, Cardiff U., and APC Paris-7.

(left- photograph showing an array of antenna coupled bolometers developed at UC Berkeley. right- model of the POLARBEAR Telescope)

The McGill team consists of Prof. Matt Dobbs and postdoc Peter Hyland.

Links:

POLARBEAR Collaboration | Public Webpage | Internal Wiki (password protected) |
Wikipedia pages for: | the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation | Inflation |
The Taskforce on CMB Research Report ("Weiss Committee") provides an accessible introduction to the science and technology of CMB polarization.

(3d Model of the Polarbear Cryostat above and its realization below.)

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