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The EBEX Experiment
P. Oxleya, P. Adeb, C. Baccigalupi, P. deBernardisd, H-M. Choe, M. J. Devlinf, S. Hananya,
B. R. Johnson', T. Jones', A. T. Leeet, T. Matsumura', A. D. Miller, M. Milligan',
T. Renbarger', H. G. Spielerg, R. Stompor2, G. S. Tucker, M. Zaldarriagak
a Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, U.S.A.;
b Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wales, Cardiff, CF24 3YB, Wales;
C International School for Advanced Studies, 34014 Trieste, Italy;
d Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Roma La Sapienza, 00185 Rome, Italy;
e Dept. of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.;
O f Dept. of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.;
O g Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab., Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.;
Cl h Dept. of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, U.S.A.;
Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab., Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.;
3 Dept. of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A;
k Astronomy Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A;
ABSTRACT
EBEX is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave
background radiation. The measurements would probe the inflationary epoch that took place shortly after the
big bang and would significantly improve constraints on the values of several cosmological parameters. EBEX
O- is unique in its broad frequency coverage and in its ability to provide critical information about the level of
q polarized Galactic foregrounds which will be necessary for all future CMB polarization experiments.
0 EBEX consists of a 1.5 m Dragone-type telescope that provides a resolution of less than 8 arcminutes over four
focal planes each of 40 diffraction limited field of view at frequencies up to 450 GHz. The experiment is designed
to accommodate 330 transition edge bolometric detectors per focal plane, for a total of up to 1320 detectors.
EBEX will operate with frequency bands centered at 150, 250, 350, and 450 GHz. Polarimetry is achieved with
a rotating achromatic half-wave plate. EBEX is currently in the design and construction phase, and first light
rn is scheduled for 2008.
Keywords: EBEX, CMB, TES, bolometers, polarimetry, magnetic bearing
1. INTRODUCTION
EBEX (E and B EXperiment) is a long duration balloon-borne experiment equipped with arrays of hundreds of
bolometric transition edge sensors (TES) at the focal plane of a 1.5 m aperture telescope. It will measure the
temperature and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. EBEX has four primary
scientific goals, (1) to detect the B-mode inflationary gravitational-wave background signal, or set an upper
bound that is a factor of ~15 more restrictive than current bounds, (2) to provide critical information about
the polarization of Galactic foregrounds, particularly of dust emission, at the micro-Kelvin level, (3) to measure
the yet undetected signature of lensing of the polarization of the CMB, and (4) to improve the determination
of several cosmological parameters by up to a factor of six. All of these goals are of fundamental importance
for physics and astrophysics. EBEX will provide an important milestone in the implementation and testing
of detector, detector readout, optics, and polarimetry techniques that are being considered for a future NASA
CMB polarization satellite, and is unique in its foreground determination capability compared to all current and
proposed CMB experiments. In Sec. 2 we review the cosmology that will be probed with the EBEX measurements
and in Sec. 3 we describe the EBEX instrument.
Send correspondence to P. Oxley: E-mail: oxley@physics.umn.edu, Telephone: +1 612 624 06731
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Oxley, P.; Ade, P.; Baccigalupi, C.; deBernardis, P.; Cho, H-M.; Devlin, M. J. et al. The EBEX Experiment, article, January 6, 2005; Berkeley, California. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc885144/m1/1/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.