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The primordial inflation explorer (pixie) mission
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Hinshaw, Gary F. Dotson, Jessie L. Halpern, Mark Kogut, Alan J. Seiffert, Michael D. Chuss, David T. Spergel, David N. Wollack, Edward J. Moseley, S. Harvey Fixsen, Dale J. Meyer, Stephan M. |
| Copyright Year | 2011 |
| Description | The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) is an Explorer-class mission to map the absolute intensity and linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background and diffuse astrophysical foregrounds over the full sky from frequencies 30 GHz to 6 THz (I cm to 50 I-tm wavelength). PIXIE uses a polarizing Michelson interferometer with 2.7 K optics to measure the difference spectrum between two orthogonal linear polarizations from two co-aligned beams. Either input can view either the sky or a temperature-controlled absolute reference blackbody calibrator. The multimoded optics and high etendu provide sensitivity comparable to kilo-pixel focal plane arrays, but with greatly expanded frequency coverage while using only 4 detectors total. PIXIE builds on the highly successful COBEIFIRAS design by adding large-area polarization-sensitive detectors whose fully symmetric optics are maintained in thermal equilibrium with the CMB. The highly symmetric nulled design provides redundant rejection of major sources of systematic uncertainty. The principal science goal is the detection and characterization of linear polarization from an inflationary epoch in the early universe, with tensor-to-scalar ratio r much less than 10(exp -3). PIXIE will also return a rich data set constraining physical processes ranging from Big Bang cosmology, reionization, and large-scale structure to the local interstellar medium. Keywords: cosmic microwave background, polarization, FTS, bolometer |
| File Size | 993426 |
| Page Count | 12 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20110015314 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t0sr3vr1b |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2011-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Astronomy Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Astrophysics Calibrating Bolometers Scalars Linear Polarization Universe Spectra Thermodynamic Equilibrium Interstellar Matter Pixels Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
