Measuring the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) polarization with QUIET

Abstract

A major goal of upcoming experiments measuring the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) is to reveal the subtle signature of inflation in the polarization pattern which requires unprecedented sensitivity and control of systematics. Since the sensitivity of single receivers has reached fundamental limits future experiments will take advantage of large receiver arrays in order to significantly increase the sensitivity. Here we introduce the Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) which will use HEMT-based receivers in chip packages at 90(40) GHz in the Atacama Desert. Data taking is planned for the beginning of 2008 with prototype arrays of 91(19) receivers, an expansion to 1000 receivers is foreseen. With the two frequencies and a careful choice of scan regions there is the promise of effectively dealing with foregrounds and reaching a sensitivity approaching 10$^{-2}$ for the ratio of the tensor to scalar perturbations.