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arXiv · 1808.04493

The Simons Observatory: Instrument Overview

Abstract

The Simons Observatory (SO) will make precise temperature and polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using a set of telescopes which will cover angular scales between 1 arcminute and tens of degrees, contain over 60,000 detectors, and observe at frequencies between 27 and 270 GHz. SO will consist of a 6 m aperture telescope coupled to over 30,000 transition-edge sensor bolometers along with three 42 cm aperture refractive telescopes, coupled to an additional 30,000+ detectors, all of which will be located in the Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5190 m. The powerful combination of large and small apertures in a CMB observatory will allow us to sample a wide range of angular scales over a common survey area. SO will measure fundamental cosmological parameters of our universe, constrain primordial fluctuations, find high redshift clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel`dovich effect, constrain properties of neutrinos, and trace the density and velocity of the matter in the universe over cosmic time. The complex set of technical and science requirements for this experiment has led to innovative instrumentation solutions which we will discuss. The large aperture telescope will couple to a cryogenic receiver that is 2.4 m in diameter and nearly 3 m long, creating a number of technical challenges. Concurrently, we are designing the array of cryogenic receivers housing the 42 cm aperture telescopes. We will discuss the sensor technology SO will use and we will give an overview of the drivers for and designs of the SO telescopes and receivers, with their cold optical components and detector arrays.

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Nicholas Galitzki, Aamir Ali, Kam S. Arnold, Peter C. Ashton, Jason E. Austermann, Carlo Baccigalupi, Taylor Baildon, Darcy Barron, James A. Beall, Shawn Beckman, Sarah Marie M. Bruno, Sean Bryan, Paolo G. Calisse, Grace E. Chesmore, Yuji Chinone, Steve K. Choi, Gabriele Coppi, Kevin D. Crowley, Kevin T. Crowley, Ari Cukierman, Mark J. Devlin, Simon Dicker, Bradley Dober, Shannon M. Duff, Jo Dunkley, Giulio Fabbian, Patricio A. Gallardo, Martina Gerbino, Neil Goeckner-Wald, Joseph E. Golec, Jon E. Gudmundsson, Erin E. Healy, Shawn Henderson, Charles A. Hill, Gene C. Hilton, Shuay-Pwu Patty Ho, Logan A. Howe, Johannes Hubmayr, Oliver Jeong, Brian Keating, Brian J. Koopman, Kenji Kuichi, Akito Kusaka, Jacob Lashner, Adrian T. Lee, Yaqiong Li, Michele Limon, Marius Lungu, Frederick Matsuda, Philip D. Mauskopf, Andrew J. May, Nialh McCallum, Jeff McMahon, Federico Nati, Michael D. Niemack, John L. Orlowski-Scherer, Stephen C. Parshley, Lucio Piccirillo, Mayuri Sathyanarayana Rao, Christopher Raum, Maria Salatino, Joseph S. Seibert, Carlos Sierra, Max Silva-Feaver, Sara M. Simon, Suzanne T. Staggs, Jason R. Stevens, Aritoki Suzuki, Grant Teply, Robert Thornton, Calvin Tsai, Joel N. Ullom, Eve M. Vavagiakis, Michael R. Vissers, Benjamin Westbrook, Edward J. Wollack, Zhilei Xu, Ningfeng Zhu. 2018-08-14. The Simons Observatory: Instrument Overview. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312985

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