280 GHz receivers for the SPIDER CMB polarimeter

Shaw, Elle Claire

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121971 Copy

Description

Title

280 GHz receivers for the SPIDER CMB polarimeter

Author(s)

Shaw, Elle Claire

Issue Date

2023-11-07

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Filippini, Jeffrey P

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Vieira, Joaquin

Committee Member(s)

• Adshead, Peter J
• Eckstein, James N

Department of Study

Physics

Discipline

Physics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• cosmic microwave background
• Millimeter-wave Instrumentation
• Scientific Ballooning
• Cosmology
• Polarization
• Telescopes

Abstract

The SPIDER instrument is optimized to search for a degree-scale B-mode polarization signature in the cosmic microwave background left by primordial gravitational waves. A positive detection of the B-mode signature would provide a window to the early universe and discriminate among inflation models. During its first flight in 2015, SPIDER mapped approximately 10 percent of the sky at 95 and 150 GHz. This dissertation covers the second flight of the SPIDER instrument, from the hardware upgrades and integration through launch and a preliminary analysis of the 280 GHz detector performance. SPIDER's second flight from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in December 2022-January 2023, deployed over 2,500 detectors distributed across three 280 GHz receivers, two 95 GHz receivers, and one 150 GHz receiver. With the addition of the 280 GHz band, SPIDER is poised to make a state-of-the-art measurement of the Galactic foregrounds that contaminate the cosmological signal.

Graduation Semester

2023-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Elle Shaw

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