probing the origin of the universe with the ebex balloon ......observational cosmology - university...

Probing the Origin of the Universe with the EBEX Balloon-Borne

Telescope

Kate Raach University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Observational Cosmology - University of Minnesota

10-34 = 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001 1026 = 100000000000000000000000000

Image Courtesy WMAP Science Team

History of the Universe

Time

Inflation: Universe expands by a factor of 1026 in only 10-34 seconds.




Time


Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons emitted (~380000 years)




Time


First stars form (~500 million years)





Time




Structure Formation: Galaxies, Planets, etc.




Time




Structure Formation: Galaxies, Planets, etc.

Today (~14 billion years)




Time

The CMB is a baby picture of the universe


What can we learn from the CMB?

ESA Planck Collaboration • How old is the universe? • How did the universe begin? • What is the universe made of? Have the contents changed over

time? • How did the large structures in our universe form? • What is the geometry of space (e.g. flat, curved)? • How will the universe evolve in the future?


Polarization

Wikimedia Commons, User:Heron

Unpolarized Polarized

Light is a wave with both an amplitude and a direction


The CMB is Polarized

• E-modes: Density perturbations in the primordial soup

• B-modes: Gravity waves generated at the time of inflation

Krauss, Science May 2010

WMAP Science Team


EBEX in a nutshell • A balloon-borne

telescope designed to measure the polarization of the CMB

• First science flight from Antarctica in December 2012/January 2013

EBEX Collaboration University of

Minnesota/Twin Cities

Asad Aboobaker

Francois Aubin

Chaoyun Bao

Bikramjit Chandra

Christopher Geach

Shaul Hanany (PI)

Terry Jones

Jeff Klein

Michael Milligan

Kate Raach

Karl Young

Kyle Zilic

Weizmann Institute

of Science Lorne Levinson

Ilan Sagiv

APC – Paris Radek Stompor

Berkeley Lab Julian Borrill

Ted Kisner

Brown University Kyle Helson

Andrei Korotkov

Greg Tucker

Cardiff Peter Ade

Enzo Pascale

Columbia University

Daniel Chapman

Joy Didier

Seth Hillbrand

Brad Johnson

Michele Limon

Amber Miller

Britt Reichborn-

Kjennerud

IAS-Orsay Julien Grain

Imperial College Andrew Jaffe

Stephen Feeney

Donnacha Kirk

LAL-Orsay

Matthieu Tristram

McGill University

Kevin Bandura

Matt Dobbs

Kevin MacDermid

Graeme Smecher

NIST Gene Hilton

Hannes Hubmayr

Kent Irwin

Carl Reintsema

SISSA-Trieste Carlo Baccigalupi

Giuseppe Puglisi

University of

California/Berkeley

Adrian Lee

Ben Westbrook



Long Duration Ballooning (LDB)

Asad Aboobaker NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

At Launch

At Float (120,000 ft)


Antarctic LDB Facility

Photo: Asad Aboobaker


Antarctic LDB Facility

Photo: Daniel Chapman

EBEX Telescope


25 ft

Sun Shades

Ground Shield

Sun Shades

Solar Panels

Ground Shield

6000 lb Suspended Science Weight 2.6 kWatt max provided by panels



Secondary Mirror Receiver

Primary Mirror

Star Camera

Readout Electronics

Gyros

EBEX Telescope


3 mm

8.6 cm

150

150

150

150

250 250 410

2.1 mm

30 cm

0.1 mm

EBEX Detectors


EBEX Detectors

• ground technology -> balloon environment

• testing and characterization

• operation


EBEX Status

• First science flight was successful – 25 days at float, 11 days of

cryogens (as predicted)

– first time this type of detectors recorded science data in a space-like environment

• Data recovered January 2013; Instrument recovered November 2013

• Data analysis and map-making is in progress



EBEX Recovery



EBEX Recovery

January 2013

November 2013 Photos: Asad Aboobaker


EBEX Recovery



EBEXers Around Town

• Minnesota State Fair

• UMN Math & Science Family Fun Fair

• Lab tours for: – grade school students (Girls’ Day

for TCGIS)

– high school students (QuarkNet, UMN CSE outreach)

– undergraduate students (prospective physics majors, experimental physics lab)

– graduate students


• Minnesota Space Grant Consortium • NASA • Canada Space Agency • National Science Foundation • Canada Research Chairs Program • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada • Canadian Institute for Advanced Research • Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK) • Minnesota Supercomputing Institute • National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center • Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium • Funding from Collaborating Institutions • Sigma Xi • Private Donations

Acknowledgements

Photo: Francois Aubin

probing the origin of the universe with the ebex balloon ......observational cosmology - university...

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