GroundBIRD: observations of CMB polarization with fast scan modulation and MKIDs

Polarized patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation contains rich knowledge for early stage of the universe. In particular their odd-parity patterns at large angular scale (> 1°), primordial B-modes, are smoking-gun evidence for the cosmic inflation. The GroundBIRD experiment aims to detect these B-modes with a ground-based apparatus that includes several novel devices: a high-speed rotational scan system, cold optics, and microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). We plan to start observations in the Canary Islands in 2017. In this paper, we present the status of the development of our instruments. We established an environment that allows operation of our MKIDs in an optical configuration, in which the MKIDs observe radiations from the outside of the telescope aperture. We have also constructed MKID prototypes, and we are testing them in the optical configuration.

[1]  D. Barkats,et al.  New Measurements of Fine-Scale CMB Polarization Power Spectra from CAPMAP at Both 40 and 90 GHz , 2008 .

[2]  O. Tajima,et al.  Radio-transparent multi-layer insulation for radiowave receivers. , 2013, The Review of scientific instruments.

[3]  S. Oguri,et al.  Front–End Electronics for the Array Readout of a Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector Towards Observation of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization , 2016 .

[4]  Thibaut Louis,et al.  Towards a cosmological neutrino mass detection , 2015, 1509.07471.

[5]  Osamu Tajima,et al.  Special Section on Leading-Edge Applications and Fundamentals of Superconducting Sensors and Detectors Development of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector for Cosmological Observations , 2015 .

[6]  J. Carlstrom,et al.  Detection of polarization in the cosmic microwave background using DASI , 2002, Nature.

[7]  E. Leitch,et al.  IMPROVED MEASUREMENTS OF THE TEMPERATURE AND POLARIZATION OF THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND FROM QUaD , 2009, 0906.1003.

[8]  Edward J. Wollack,et al.  FIVE-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE OBSERVATIONS: COSMOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION , 2008, 0803.0547.

[9]  P. A. R. Ade,et al.  MEASUREMENT OF COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND POLARIZATION POWER SPECTRA FROM TWO YEARS OF BICEP DATA , 2009, 0906.1181.

[10]  I. Buder,et al.  FIRST SEASON QUIET OBSERVATIONS : MEASUREMENTS OF CMB POLARIZATION POWER SPECTRA AT 43 GHZ IN THE MULTIPOLE RANGE 25 ≤ l ≤ 475 QUIET Collaboration , 2010 .

[11]  I. Buder,et al.  Novel Calibration System with Sparse Wires for CMB Polarization Receivers , 2011 .

[12]  Andrew R. Liddle,et al.  Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure , 2000 .

[13]  S. Oguri,et al.  GroundBIRD: Observing Cosmic Microwave Polarization at Large Angular Scale with Kinetic Inductance Detectors and High-Speed Rotating Telescope , 2015, Journal of Low Temperature Physics.

[14]  H. Ishitsuka,et al.  GroundBIRD: an experiment for CMB polarization measurements at a large angular scale from the ground , 2012, Other Conferences.