Title: The EBEX Balloon-borne Experiment—Optics, Receiver, and Polarimetry

Abstract

The E and B Experiment (EBEX) was a long-duration balloon-borne cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter that flew over Antarctica in 2012. We describe the experiment's optical system, receiver, and polarimetric method and discuss their in-flight performance. EBEX had three frequency bands centered on 150, 250, and 410 GHz. To make effective use of limited mass and space, we created a 115 cm² sr high-throughput optical system that had two ambient temperature mirrors and four antireflection-coated polyethylene lenses per focal plane. All frequency bands shared the same optical train. Polarimetry was achieved with a continuously rotating achromatic half-wave plate (AHWP) that was levitated with a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB). This is the first use of an SMB in astrophysics. Rotation stability was 0.45% over a period of 10 hr, and angular position accuracy was 0$$^{°}_{.}$$1. The measured modulation efficiency was above 90% for all bands. To our knowledge the 109% fractional bandwidth of the AHWP was the broadest implemented to date. The receiver, composed of one lens and the AHWP at a temperature of 4 K, the polarizing grid and other lenses at 1 K, and the two focal planes at 0.25 K, performed according to specifications, giving focal plane temperature stability with a fluctuation power spectrum that had a 1/f knee at 2 mHz. EBEX was the first balloon-borne instrument to implement technologies characteristic of modern CMB polarimeters, including high-throughput optical systems, and large arrays of transition edge sensor bolometric detectors with multiplexed readouts.

Authors:

Aboobaker, Asad M.; Ade, Peter ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-5127-0401"

Araujo, Derek ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-0527-2948"

Aubin, François ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8241-4156"

Baccigalupi, Carlo; Bao, Chaoyun; Chapman, Daniel; Didier, Joy ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4151-9450"

Dobbs, Matt; Geach, Christopher; Grainger, Will; Hanany, Shaul ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8702-6291"

Helson, Kyle ;

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Hillbrand, Seth; Hubmayr, Johannes; Jaffe, Andrew ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-2086-1759"

Johnson, Bradley; Jones, Terry; Klein, Jeff; Korotkov, Andrei more »; Lee, Adrian; Levinson, Lorne ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4679-0485"

Limon, Michele ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-5900-2698"

MacDermid, Kevin; Matsumura, Tomotake; Miller, Amber D.; Milligan, Michael; Raach, Kate; Reichborn-Kjennerud, Britt; Sagiv, Ilan ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-8377-3153"

Savini, Giorgio; Spencer, Locke; Tucker, Carole; Tucker, Gregory S. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6954-6947"

Westbrook, Benjamin; Young, Karl ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-1337-6088"

Zilic, Kyle

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1971-7151"

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Publication Date:

Tue Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Contributing Org.:

The EBEX Collaboration

OSTI Identifier:

1544087

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series (Online); Journal Volume: 239; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4365

Publisher:

American Astronomical Society/IOP

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; balloons; cosmic background radiation; cosmology: observations; instrumentation: polarimeters; polarization