Improved absolute polarization calibrator for BICEP CMB polarimeters

Polish, A. R., Ade, P. A. R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-0401, Ahmed, Z., Amiri, M., Barkats, D., Thakur, R. Basu, Bischoff, C. A., Beck, D., Bock, J. J., Boenish, H., Buza, V., Cantrall, B., IV, J. R. Cheshire, Connors, J., Cornelison, J., Crumrine, M., Cukierman, A. J., Denison, E., Duband, L., Echter, M., Eiben, M., Elwood, B. D., Fatigoni, S., Filippini, J. P., Fortes, A., Gao, M., Giannakopoulos, C., Goeckner-Wald, N., Goldfinger, D. C., Gratton, S., Grayson, J. A., Greathouse, A., Grimes, P. K., Hall, G., Halal, G., Halpern, M., Hand, E., Harrison, S. A., Henderson, S., Hoang, T. D., Hubmayr, J., Hui, H., Irwin, K. D., Kang, J. H., Karkare, K. S., Kefeli, S., Kovac, J. M., Kuo, C., Lasko, K., Lau, K. K., Lautzenhiser, M., Lennox, A., Liu, T., Mackey, S., Maher, N., Megerian, K. G., Minutolo, L., Moncelsi, L., Nakato, Y., Nguyen, H. T., OBrient, R., Paine, S. N., Patel, A., Petroff, M. A., Prouve, T., Pryke, C., Reintsema, C. D., Romand, T., Salatino, M., Schillaci, A., Schmitt, B., Singari, B., Soliman, A., Germaine, T. St., Steiger, A., Steinbach, B., Sudiwala, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3240-5304, Thompson, K. L., Tsai, C., Tucker, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1851-3918, Turner, A. D., Vergès, C., Vieregg, A. G., Wandui, A., Weber, A. C., Willmert, J., Wu, W. L. K., Yang, H., Yu, C., Zheng, L., Zhang, C. and Zhang, S. 2026. Improved absolute polarization calibrator for BICEP CMB polarimeters. Presented at: mm Universe 2025, Chicago, USA, 23-27 June 2025. EPJ Web of Conferences. , vol.353 Società Italiana di Fisica, 01013. 10.1051/epjconf/202635301013

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Abstract

Cosmic birefringence is a hypothesized parity violation in electromagnetism that predicts a frequency-independent polarization rotation as light propagates. This would rotate the light from the Cosmic Microwave Background, producing an unexpected EB correlation. However, cosmic birefringence angle is degenerate with instrument polarization angle, and breaking this degeneracy requires an absolute polarization calibration. We calibrate the BICEP3 telescope (a 95GHz CMB polarimeter) by observing a rotating polarized source (RPS) with both the telescope and a small test receiver called the In-Situ Absolute Angle Calibrator (ISAAC).

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item - published (Paper)
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	Società Italiana di Fisica
ISSN:	2100-014X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	2 March 2026
Last Modified:	02 Mar 2026 14:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/185381

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