179 research outputs found
Large Aperture Camera for the Simons Observatory
No full textThe Simon's observatory will consist of one large 6m telescope and three or more smaller telescopes working together with a goal of measuring the polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background on angular scales as small as ~1' to larger than 1 degree and at a sensitivity far greater than has ever been reached before. To reach these sensitivities, needed for our science goals, we require over 90000 background limited TES detectors on the large telescope - hence a very large field-of-view. The telescope design we have selected is a copy of the CCAT-prime telescope, a Crossed Dragone with extra aspheric terms to increase the diffraction limited field-of-view. At the secondary focus will be a ~2.5m diameter cryostat containing re-imaging silicon optics which can correct remaining aberrations (mostly astigmatism) at the edge of the field of view and allow this part of the focal plane to be used at higher frequencies. This poster will contain an outline of our optical designs and take a brief look at how they could be scaled to a larger telescope
The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts for the enhanced large aperture telescope
No full textWe describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of Planck. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at ; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from Rubin of overlapping sky
THE SIMONS OBSERVATORY
No full textInternational audienceWe describe the new generation CMB-polarization instrument, the SimonsObservatory, which will start observing the sky in 2021 from the 5,200 m-highChajnantor plateau in the Atacama desert, Chile. The observatory willcharacterize with high accuracy the CMB intensity and polarization fluctuations,aiming at a broad range of science targets, from the early to the late Universe.We will review these science objectives, as well as the instrumentalconfigurations adopted by the collaboration, as it was presented during the 53rd Rencontres de Moriond, in La Thuile, in March 2018
The Simons Observatory: Overview of data acquisition, control, monitoring, and computer infrastructure
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) will be a cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment with three small-aperture telescopes and one large-aperture telescope, which will observe from the Atacama Desert in Chile. In total, SO will field over 60,000 transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers in six spectral bands centered between 27 and 280 GHz in order to achieve the sensitivity necessary to measure or constrain numerous cosmological quantities, as outlined in The Simons Observatory Collaboration et al. (2019). To achieve these goals we have built an open-sourced platform, called OCS (Observatory Control System), which orchestrates distributed hardware systems. We provide an overview of the SO software and computer infrastructure
The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes (SATs) and one large-aperture 6-m telescope (LAT), with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The SATs will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ~10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 µ K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r , at a target level of s(r)=0.003 . The LAT will map ~40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 µ K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the LSST sky region and partially with DESI. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources
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The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes (SATs) and one large-aperture 6-m telescope (LAT), with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The SATs will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ~10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 µ K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, r , at a target level of s(r)=0.003 . The LAT will map ~40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 µ K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the LSST sky region and partially with DESI. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources
Development of an optical detector testbed for the Simons Observatory
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) survey experiment with three small-aperture telescopes and one large-aperture telescope, which will observe from the Atacama Desert in Chile. In total, SO will field over 60,000 transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers in six spectral bands centered between 27 and 280 GHz in order to achieve the sensitivity necessary to measure or constrain numerous cosmological quantities, as outlined in The Simons Observatory Collaboration et al. (2019). To verify consistency of fabrication and performance in line with our sensitivity requirements, we will perform in-lab optical tests on isolated SO detectors as well as full detector arrays. The tests include beam measurements, bandpass measurements, and polarization measurements, among others. Here, we will describe the development of a cryogenic testbed that enables optical characterization of SO's detectors. We include the infrared filtering strategy to allow suitable cryogenic performance, design and implementation of the test equipment used in characterization, and the preliminary results from our validation of the testbed's cryo-optical performance...
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The Simons Observatory: Astro2020 Decadal Project Whitepaper
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background
(CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that
promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology,
and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons
Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see
first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287
collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and
90 postdocs.
The SO experiment in its currently funded form ('SO-Nominal') consists of
three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture
Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization
measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep,
degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial
gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute
resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino
masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and
refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of
feedback in galaxy formation.
With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of
the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping
speed over currently operating ("Stage 3") experiments, SO will measure the CMB
temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six
frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while
informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4
The Simons observatory: Astro2020 decadal project whitepaper
No full textThe Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background
(CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that
promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology,
and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons
Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see
first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287
collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and
90 postdocs.
The SO experiment in its currently funded form ('SO-Nominal') consists of
three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture
Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization
measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep,
degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial
gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute
resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino
masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and
refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of
feedback in galaxy formation.
With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of
the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping
speed over currently operating ("Stage 3") experiments, SO will measure the CMB
temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six
frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while
informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4
The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope
No full textWe describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of the Planck satellite. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at redshifts z ≲ 3; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory of overlapping sky
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