Temperature calibration of the E and B experiment

François Aubin, Asad M. Aboobaker, Chaoyun Bao, Christopher Geach, Shaul Hanany, Terry Jones, Jeff Klein, Michael Milligan, Kate Raach, Karl Young, Kyle Zilic, Kyle Helson, Andrei Korotkov, Valerie Marchenko, Gregory S. Tucker, Peter Ade, Enzo Pascale, Derek Araujo, Daniel Chapman, Joy DidierSeth Hillbrand, Bradley Johnson, Michele Limon, Amber D. Miller, Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud, Stephen Feeney, Andrew Jaffe, Radek Stompor, Matthieu Tristram, Matt Dobbs, Kevin Macdermid, Graeme Smecher, Julian Borrill, Theodore Kisner, Gene Hilton, Johannes Hubmayr, Carl Reintsema, Carlo Baccigalupi, Giuseppe Puglisi, Adrian Lee, Ben Westbrook, Lorne Levinson, Ilan Sagiv

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The E and B Experiment (EBEX) is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation and to characterize the polarization of galactic dust. EBEX was launched December 29, 2012 and circumnavigated Antarctica observing ∼6,000 square degrees of sky during 11 days at three frequency bands centered around 150, 250 and 410 GHz. EBEX was the first experiment to operate a kilo-pixel array of transition-edge sensor bolometers and a continuously rotating achromatic half-wave plate aboard a balloon platform. It also pioneered the use of detector readout based on digital frequency domain multiplexing. We describe the temperature calibration of the experiment. The gain response of the experiment is calibrated using a two-step iterative process. We use signals measured on passes across the Galactic plane to convert from readout-system counts to power. The effective smoothing scale of the EBEX optics and the star camera-to-detector offset angles are determined through χ2 minimization using the compact HII region RCW 38. This two-step process is initially performed with parameters measured before the EBEX 2013 flight and then repeated until the calibration factor and parameters converge.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories, Proceedings
EditorsMassimo Bianchi, Robert T Jantzen, Remo Ruffini, Remo Ruffini
PublisherWorld Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd
Pages2084-2089
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9789813226593
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Event14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories - Rome, Italy
Duration: Jul 12 2015Jul 18 2015

Publication series

Name14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories, Proceedings

Conference

Conference14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityRome
Period7/12/157/18/15

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 by the Editors.All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Balloon-borne
  • Bolometer
  • CMB
  • Foregrounds
  • TES
  • Temperature calibration

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