Anisotropy measurements of the cosmic-background radiation at 3-mm wavelength and an angular scale of 30 arcminutes
This dissertation is concerned with measurements of the anisotropy in the Cosmic Background Radiation, at 3mm wavelength, on angular scales from 5 arcminutes to 1 degree. The data give an upper limit at 95% confidence to fluctuations in the Cosmic Background Radiation of {Delta}T/T < 3.0 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} for Gaussian autocorrelation functions with dispersions from 20 to 30 arcminutes, and weaker limits on smaller and larger scales. In addition, measurements of the galactic plane show unexpectedly high emission at 3mm, inconsistent with the previously accepted single-component galactic dust model with a scaling index of 2. These measurements were carried out with a 1 meter off-axis telescope designed for operation from a stratospheric helium-filled balloon, but also used on the ground from the South Pole. The detector is a superconducting mixer with a sensitivity of 1.7 mK/{radical}Hz (before chopping), and telescope pointing performance is demonstrated to be better than 1 arcminute in both azimuth and elevation. The development of the instrument is described, and details of the optical system, detector, and servo system are given. Discussions of the performance of the various subsystems, along with the limitations of the instrument are included.
- Research Organization:
- California Univ., Berkeley, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5185208
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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