Scientific Seminars

CMB polarization - instrumentation and analysis

Siddharth S. Malu
IUCAA-Pune

2008-12-01    11.00    Bicocca - Aula U4 03 (presso Dipartimento Geologia)

CMB cosmology has undergone a dramatic change in the past decade and is now a data-rich field in astrophysics.
The power spectrum of CMB temperature anisotropies has been measured with great accuracy and this has led to a systematic characterization of cosmological models.
Polarization has been detected in the CMB, and novel techniques in data analysis have emerged that allow us to deal with large datasets.

The aforementioned results fit well within and are explained well by the inflationary paradigm.
However, current evidence for cosmological inflation is indirect.
The next generation of CMB experiments will aim at providing the most direct evidence for the inflationary paradigm through the detection of B-modes in CMB polarization.

I will describe a new instrument, the Millimeter-wave Bolometric Interferometer (MBI) and discuss new techniques and ideas in instrumentation that can be used in CMB polarization experiments in this context.
Novel techniques in antenna receiver, beam combining and detector systems have resulted in greatly improved sensitivities. However, it is as yet unclear exactly which configuration and approach a CMB polarization experiment should adopt, in view of lack of information about polarization foregrounds and instrument systematic effects.
I will present a few promising approaches and discuss briefly plans for feasibility studies for detecting CMB polarization foregrounds and signal.