BICEP3 and CMB-S4 : current and future CMB polarization experiments to probe fundamental physics
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization is a powerful probe of fundamental physics -- from the physics of inflation to the sum of neutrino masses. BICEP3 is a new 95GHz receiver in the BICEP/Keck Array series of inflationary probes at the South Pole sensitive to the CMB polarization at degree-angular scales. The goal of the BICEP/Keck program is to test one of inflation's prediction: generation of stochastic gravitational wave background. This gravitational wave background imprints B-mode polarization patterns on the CMB which peaks at 2 degrees in the power spectrum. BICEP3 advances per-receiver sensitivity, while maintaining the advantages of a compact refractor with degree-angular resolution. BICEP3 doubles the aperture of BICEP2/Keck receivers, has faster optics, and can house 1280 dual-polarization pixels on its focal plane. This thesis details the instrument design of BICEP3, with discussions on initial performance from instrument characterization measurements and preliminary maps made from the first 3 months of observations in 2015. Together with multi-frequency observation data from Planck, BICEP2, and the Keck Array, BICEP3 is projected to be able to set upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio to $r$ $\lesssim$ 0.03 at 95\% C.L.. CMB-S4 is a future ground-based CMB polarization experiment, planned to observe large fractions of the sky (> 50%), have high resolution (less than 3') focusing on the arc-minute scale B-mode spectrum generated by lensing, and orders of magnitude more detectors than current generation of experiments (200,000+). The high signal-to-noise measurement of E-modes and B-modes of the CMB enables delensing through the E-to-B channel and reconstructing the lensing potential. We can therefore study 1) the gravitational wave generated B-modes with lensing removal, 2) physics that changes the shape of the lensing potential, and 3) further constraint and verify cosmological parameters through the E-modes. This thesis focuses on investigating how a wider range of input experiment configurations (sky fraction, detector count, beam sizes) for CMB-S4 changes the constraints on physics parameters of interests. With unprecedented sensitivity, CMB-S4 is projected to place competitive constraints on these areas of physics: cosmic neutrino background, dark matter, dark energy, and inflation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Wu, Wai Ling Kimmy |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics. |
| Primary advisor | Kuo, Chao-Lin |
| Thesis advisor | Kuo, Chao-Lin |
| Thesis advisor | Burchat, P. (Patricia) |
| Thesis advisor | Church, Sarah Elizabeth |
| Advisor | Burchat, P. (Patricia) |
| Advisor | Church, Sarah Elizabeth |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Wai Ling Kimmy Wu. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Wai Ling Wu
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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