The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: the polarization-sensitive Actpol instrument

Thornton, R. J., Ade, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-0401, Aiola, S., Angilè, F. E., Amiri, M., Beall, J. A., Becker, D. T., Cho, H-M., Choi, S. K., Corlies, P., Coughlin, K. P., Datta, R., Devlin, M. J., Dicker, S. R., Dünner, R., Fowler, J. W., Fox, A. E., Gallardo, P. A., Gao, J., Grace, E., Halpern, M., Hasselfield, M., Henderson, S. W., Hilton, G. C., Hincks, A. D., Ho, S. P., Hubmayr, J., Irwin, K. D., Klein, J., Koopman, B., Li, Dale, Louis, T., Lungu, M., Maurin, L., McMahon, J., Munson, C. D., Naess, S., Nati, F., Newburgh, L., Nibarger, J., Niemack, M. D., Niraula, P., Nolta, M. R., Page, L. A., Pappas, C. G., Schillaci, A., Schmitt, B. L., Sehgal, N., Sievers, J. L., Simon, S. M., Staggs, S. T., Tucker, Carole ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1851-3918, Uehara, M., Lanen, J. van, Ward, J. T. and Wollack, E. J. 2016. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: the polarization-sensitive Actpol instrument. Astrophysical Journal Supplement 227 (2) , 21. 10.3847/1538-4365/227/2/21

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Abstract

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) makes high angular resolution measurements of anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at millimeter wavelengths. We describe ACTPol, an upgraded receiver for ACT, which uses feedhorn-coupled, polarization-sensitive detector arrays, a 3° field of view, 100 mK cryogenics with continuous cooling, and meta material antireflection coatings. ACTPol comprises three arrays with separate cryogenic optics: two arrays at a central frequency of 148 GHz and one array operating simultaneously at both 97 GHz and 148 GHz. The combined instrument sensitivity, angular resolution, and sky coverage are optimized for measuring angular power spectra, clusters via the thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) and kinetic SZ signals, and CMB lensing due to large-scale structure. The receiver was commissioned with its first 148 GHz array in 2013, observed with both 148 GHz arrays in 2014, and has recently completed its first full season of operations with the full suite of three arrays. This paper provides an overview of the design and initial performance of the receiver and related systems.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	American Astronomical Society
ISSN:	1538-4365
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 August 2017
Date of Acceptance:	8 November 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 03:42
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103670

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