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The Cosmology Large Angular Scale SurveyorThe Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four telescope array designed to characterize relic primordial gravitational waves from inflation and the optical depth to reionization through a measurement of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the largest angular scales. The frequencies of the four CLASS telescopes, one at 38 GHz, two at 93 GHz, and one dichroic system at 145217 GHz, are chosen to avoid spectral regions of high atmospheric emission and span the minimum of the polarized Galactic foregrounds: synchrotron emission at lower frequencies and dust emission at higher frequencies. Low-noise transition edge sensor detectors and a rapid front-end polarization modulator provide a unique combination of high sensitivity, stability, and control of systematics. The CLASS site, at 5200 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, allows for daily mapping of up to 70% of the sky and enables the characterization of CMB polarization at the largest angular scales. Using this combination of a broad frequency range, large sky coverage, control over systematics, and high sensitivity, CLASS will observe the reionization and recombination peaks of the CMB E- and B-mode power spectra. CLASS will make a cosmic variance limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization and will measure or place upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, down to a level of 0.01 (95% C.L.).
Document ID
20170003328
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Harrington, Kathleen
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Marriage, Tobias
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Ali, Aamir
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Appel, John
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Bennett, Charles
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Boone, Fletcher
(Michigan Univ. Ann Arbor, MI, United States)
Brewer, Michael
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Chan, Manwei
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Chuss, David T.
(Villanova Univ. PA, United States)
Colazo, Felipe
(Beacon Systems, Inc. Washington, DC, United States)
Dahal, Sumit
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Denis, Kevin
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Duenner, Rolando
(Catholic Univ. Santiago, Chile)
Eimer, Joseph
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Essinger-Hileman, Thomas
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Fluxa, Pedro
(Catholic Univ. Santiago, Chile)
Halpern, Mark
(British Columbia Univ. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Hilton, Gene
(National Inst. of Standards and Technology Boulder, CO, United States)
Hinshaw, Gary F.
(British Columbia Univ. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Hubmayr, Johannes
(National Inst. of Standards and Technology Boulder, CO, United States)
Iuliano, Jeffery
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Miller, Nathan T.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Moseley, Samuel H.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Rostem, Karwan
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Wollack, Edward
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Date Acquired
April 11, 2017
Publication Date
July 19, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Proceedings of SPIE
Volume: 9914
ISSN: 0277-786X
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN40349
Meeting Information
Meeting: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy
Location: Edinburgh
Country: United Kingdom
Start Date: June 26, 2016
End Date: July 1, 2016
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX14AB76A
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF 1429236
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF 0959349
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX14AM49H
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)
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