Observing low elevation sky and the CMB Cold Spot with BICEP3 at the South Pole

BICEP3 is a 520 mm aperture on-axis refracting telescope at the South Pole, which observes the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz to search for the B-mode signal from inflationary gravitational waves. In addition to this main target, we have developed a low-elevation obs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2020-12
Main Authors: Kang, J, Ade, P A R, Ahmed, Z, Amiri, M, Barkats, D, R Basu Thakur, Bischoff, C A, Bock, J J, Boenish, H, Bullock, E, Buza, V, Cheshire, J R, Connors, J, Cornelison, J, Crumrine, M, Cukierman, A, Denison, E, Dierickx, M, Duband, L, Eiben, M, Fatigoni, S, Filippini, J P, Fliescher, S, Goeckner-Wald, N, Goldfinger, D C, Grayson, J A, Grimes, P, Hall, G, Halpern, M, Harrison, S A, Henderson, S, Hildebrandt, S R, Hilton, G C, Hubmayr, J, Hui, H, Irwin, K D, Karkare, K S, Karpel, E, Kefeli, S, Kernasovskiy, S A, Kovac, J M, Kuo, C L, Lau, K, Leitch, E M, Megerian, K G, Minutolo, L, Moncelsi, L, Nakato, Y, Namikawa, T, Nguyen, H T, O'Brient, R, Ogburn, R W, Palladino, S, Precup, N, Prouve, T, Pryke, C, Racine, B, Reintsema, C D, Richter, S, Schillaci, A, Schmitt, B L, Schwarz, R, Sheehy, C D, Soliman, A, T St Germaine, Steinbach, B, Sudiwala, R V, Teply, G P, Thompson, K L, Tolan, J E, Tucker, C, Turner, A D, Umiltà, C, Vieregg, A G, Wandui, A, Weber, A C, Wiebe, D V, Willmert, J, Wong, C L, Wu, W L K, Yang, E, Yoon, K W, Young, E, C Yu, Zeng, L, Zhang, C, Zhang, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Big Bang theory
Cosmic microwave background
Data analysis
Gravitational waves
Polarization
Refracting telescopes
Signal to noise ratio
South Pole
Southern sky
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Summary:BICEP3 is a 520 mm aperture on-axis refracting telescope at the South Pole, which observes the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz to search for the B-mode signal from inflationary gravitational waves. In addition to this main target, we have developed a low-elevation observation strategy to extend coverage of the Southern sky at the South Pole, where BICEP3 can quickly achieve degree-scale E-mode measurements over a large area. An interesting E-mode measurement is probing a potential polarization anomaly around the CMB Cold Spot. During the austral summer seasons of 2018-19 and 2019-20, BICEP3 observed the sky with a flat mirror to redirect the beams to various low elevation ranges. The preliminary data analysis shows degree-scale E-modes measured with high signal-to-noise ratio.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2012.09363