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We describe the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) used for in-field testing of the POLARBEAR receiver, an experiment located in the Atacama Desert of Chile which measures the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. The POLARBEAR-FTS (PB-FTS) is a Martin-Puplett interferometer designed to couple to the Huan Tran Telescope (HTT) on which the POLARBEAR receiver is installed. The PB-FTS measured the spectral response of the POLARBEAR receiver with signal-to-noise ratio >20 for ∼69% of the focal plane detectors due to three features: a high throughput of 15.1 sr cm2, optimized optical coupling to the POLARBEAR optics using a custom designed output parabolic mirror, and a continuously modulated output polarizer. The PB-FTS parabolic mirror is designed to mimic the shape of the 2.5 m-diameter HTT primary reflector, which allows for optimum optical coupling to the POLARBEAR receiver, reducing aberrations and systematics. One polarizing grid is placed at the output of the PB-FTS and modulated via continuous rotation. This modulation allows for decomposition of the signal into different harmonics that can be used to probe potentially pernicious sources of systematic error in a polarization-sensitive instrument. The high throughput and continuous output polarizer modulation features are unique compared to other FTS calibrators used in the CMB field. In-field characterization of the POLARBEAR receiver was accomplished using the PB-FTS in April 2014. We discuss the design, construction, and operation of the PB-FTS and present the spectral characterization of the POLARBEAR receiver. We introduce future applications for the PB-FTS in the next-generation CMB experiment, the Simons Array.

We present on the status of POLARBEAR-2 A (PB2-A) focal plane fabrication. The PB2-A is the first of three telescopes in the Simons Array, which is an array of three cosmic microwave background polarization-sensitive telescopes located at the POLARBEAR site in Northern Chile. As the successor to the PB experiment, each telescope and receiver combination is named as PB2-A, PB2-B, and PB2-C. PB2-A and -B will have nearly identical receivers operating at 90 and 150 GHz while PB2-C will house a receiver operating at 220 and 270 GHz. Each receiver contains a focal plane consisting of seven close-hex packed lenslet-coupled sinuous antenna transition edge sensor bolometer arrays. Each array contains 271 dichroic optical pixels, each of which has four TES bolometers for a total of 7588 detectors per receiver. We have produced a set of two types of candidate arrays for PB2-A. The first we call Version 11 (V11) uses a silicon oxide (SiOx) for the transmission lines and crossover process for orthogonal polarizations. The second we call Version 13 (V13) uses silicon nitride (SiNx) for the transmission lines and cross-under process for orthogonal polarizations. We have produced enough of each type of array to fully populate the focal plane of the PB2-A receiver. The average wirebond yield for V11 and V13 arrays is 93.2% and 95.6%, respectively. The V11 arrays had a superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 452±15 mK, a normal resistance (Rn) of 1.25±0.20Ω, and saturation powers of 5.2 ± 1.0 pW and 13 ± 1.2 pW for the 90 and 150 GHz bands, respectively. The V13 arrays had a superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 456 ± 6 mK, a normal resistance (Rn) of 1.1±0.2Ω, and saturation powers of 10.8 ± 1.8 pW and 22.9 ± 2.6 pW for the 90 and 150 GHz bands, respectively. Production and characterization of arrays for PB2-B are ongoing and are expected to be completed by the summer of 2018. We have fabricated the first three candidate arrays for PB2-C but do not have any characterization results to present at this time.

We report an improved measurement of the cosmic microwave background B-mode polarization power spectrum with the Polarbear experiment at 150 GHz. By adding new data collected during the second season of observations (2013-2014) to re-analyzed data from the first season (2012-2013), we have reduced twofold the band-power uncertainties. The band powers are reported over angular multipoles 500 ≤ ℓ ≤ 2100, where the dominant B-mode signal is expected to be due to the gravitational lensing of E-modes. We reject the null hypothesis of no B-mode polarization at a confidence of 3.1σ including both statistical and systematic uncertainties. We test the consistency of the measured B-modes with the Λ Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) framework by fitting for a single lensing amplitude parameter A L = 0.60 +0.26-0.24(stat)+0.00-0.04 (inst) ± 0.14(foreground) ± 0.04(multi), where A L = 1 relative to the Planck 2015 best-fit model prediction. We obtain ±0.14(foreground) ±0.04(multi), where is the fiducial ΛCDM value.

POLARBEAR-2 (PB-2) is a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment that will be located in the Atacama highland in Chile at an altitude of 5200 m. Its science goals are to measure the CMB polarization signals originating from both primordial gravitational waves and weak lensing. PB-2 is designed to measure the tensor to scalar ratio, r, with precision σ(r) > 0:01, and the sum of neutrino masses, Σmz, with σ(Σmv) < 90 meV. To achieve these goals, PB-2 will employ 7588 transition-edge sensor bolometers at 95 GHz and 150 GHz, which will be operated at the base temperature of 250 mK. Science observations will begin in 2017.

The Simons Array is a next generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment whose science target is a precision measurement of the B-mode polarization pattern produced both by inflation and by gravitational lensing. As a continuation and extension of the successful POLARBEAR experimental program, the Simons Array will consist of three cryogenic receivers each featuring multichroic bolometer arrays mounted onto separate 3.5m telescopes. The first of these, also called POLARBEAR-2A, will be the first to deploy in late 2016 and has a large diameter focal plane consisting of dual-polarization dichroic pixels sensitive at 95 GHz and 150 GHz. The POLARBEAR-2A focal plane will utilize 7,588 antenna-coupled superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers read out with SQUID amplifiers using frequency domain multiplexing techniques. The next two receivers that will make up the Simons Array will be nearly identical in overall design but will feature extended frequency capability. The combination of high sensitivity, multichroic frequency coverage and large sky area available from our mid-latitude Chilean observatory will allow Simons Array to produce high quality polarization sky maps over a wide range of angular scales and to separate out the CMB B-modes from other astrophysical sources with high fidelity. After accounting for galactic foreground separation, the Simons Array will detect the primordial gravitational wave B-mode signal to r > 0.01 with a significance of > 5σ and will constrain the sum of neutrino masses to 40 meV (1σ) when cross-correlated with galaxy surveys. We present the current status of this funded experiment, its future, and discuss its projected science return.

We constrain anisotropic cosmic birefringence using four-point correlations of even-parity E-mode and odd-parity B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background measurements made by the POLARization of the Background Radiation (POLARBEAR) experiment in its first season of observations. We find that the anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal from any parity-violating processes is consistent with zero. The Faraday rotation from anisotropic cosmic birefringence can be compared with the equivalent quantity generated by primordial magnetic fields if they existed. The POLARBEAR nondetection translates into a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limit of 93 nanogauss (nG) on the amplitude of an equivalent primordial magnetic field inclusive of systematic uncertainties. This four-point correlation constraint on Faraday rotation is about 15 times tighter than the upper limit of 1380 nG inferred from constraining the contribution of Faraday rotation to two-point correlations of B-modes measured by Planck in 2015. Metric perturbations sourced by primordial magnetic fields would also contribute to the B-mode power spectrum. Using the POLARBEAR measurements of the B-mode power spectrum (two-point correlation), we set a 95% C.L. upper limit of 3.9 nG on primordial magnetic fields assuming a flat prior on the field amplitude. This limit is comparable to what was found in the Planck 2015 two-point correlation analysis with both temperature and polarization. We perform a set of systematic error tests and find no evidence for contamination. This work marks the first time that anisotropic cosmic birefringence or primordial magnetic fields have been constrained from the ground at subdegree scales.

The polarbear cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment has been observing since early 2012 from its 5,200 m site in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. polarbear's measurements will characterize the expected CMB polarization due to gravitational lensing by large scale structure, and search for the possible B-mode polarization signature of inflationary gravitational waves. polarbear's 250 mK focal plane detector array consists of 1,274 polarization-sensitive antenna-coupled bolometers, each with an associated lithographed band-defining filter and contacting dielectric lenslet, an architecture unique in current CMB experiments. The status of the polarbear instrument, its focal plane, and the analysis of its measurements are presented. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

We present the design and characterization of the polarbear experiment. polarbear will measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales ranging from the experiment's 3.5′ beam size to several degrees. The experiment utilizes a unique focal plane of 1,274 antenna-coupled, polarization sensitive TES bolometers cooled to 250 milliKelvin. Employing this focal plane along with stringent control over systematic errors, polarbear has the sensitivity to detect the expected small scale B-mode signal due to gravitational lensing and search for the large scale B-mode signal from inflationary gravitational waves. polarbear was assembled for an engineering run in the Inyo Mountains of California in 2010 and was deployed in late 2011 to the Atacama Desert in Chile. An overview of the instrument is presented along with characterization results from observations in Chile. © 2012 SPIE.

We describe the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experimentcalled Polarbear. This experiment will use the dedicated Huan Tran Telescopeequipped with a powerful 1,200-bolometer array receiver to map the CMBpolarization with unprecedented accuracy. We summarize the experiment, itsgoals, and current status.

Gravitational lensing due to the large-scale distribution of matter in the cosmos distorts the primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) and thereby induces new, small-scale B-mode polarization. This signal carries detailed information about the distribution of all the gravitating matter between the observer and CMB last scattering surface. We report the first direct evidence for polarization lensing based on purely CMB information, from using the four-point correlations of even- and odd-parity E- and B-mode polarization mapped over ∼30 square degrees of the sky measured by the POLARBEAR experiment. These data were analyzed using a blind analysis framework and checked for spurious systematic contamination using null tests and simulations. Evidence for the signal of polarization lensing and lensing B modes is found at 4.2σ (stat+sys) significance. The amplitude of matter fluctuations is measured with a precision of 27%, and is found to be consistent with the Lambda cold dark matter cosmological model. This measurement demonstrates a new technique, capable of mapping all gravitating matter in the Universe, sensitive to the sum of neutrino masses, and essential for cleaning the lensing B-mode signal in searches for primordial gravitational waves.

We reconstruct the gravitational lensing convergence signal from cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization data taken by the Polarbear experiment and cross-correlate it with cosmic infrared background maps from the Herschel satellite. From the cross spectra, we obtain evidence for gravitational lensing of the CMB polarization at a statistical significance of 4.0σ and indication of the presence of a lensing B-mode signal at a significance of 2.3σ. We demonstrate that our results are not biased by instrumental and astrophysical systematic errors by performing null tests, checks with simulated and real data, and analytical calculations. This measurement of polarization lensing, made via the robust cross-correlation channel, not only reinforces POLARBEAR auto-correlation measurements, but also represents one of the early steps towards establishing CMB polarization lensing as a powerful new probe of cosmology and astrophysics.

We have developed epoxy-based, broadband antireflection coatings for millimeter-wave astrophysics experiments with cryogenic optics. By using multiple-layer coatings where each layer steps in dielectric constant, we achieved low reflection over a wide bandwidth. We suppressed the reflection from an alumina disk to 10% over fractional bandwidths of 92% and 104% using two-layer and three-layer coatings, respectively. The dielectric constants of epoxies were tuned between 2.06 and 7.44 by mixing three types of epoxy and doping with strontium titanate powder required for the high dielectric mixtures. At 140 K, the band-integrated absorption loss in the coatings was suppressed to less than 1% for the two-layer coating, and below 10% for the three-layer coating.

A technological milestone for experiments employing transition edge sensor bolometers operating at sub-Kelvin temperature is the deployment of detector arrays with 100s-1000s of bolometers. One key technology for such arrays is readout multiplexing: the ability to read out many sensors simultaneously on the same set of wires. This paper describes a frequency-domain multiplexed readout system which has been developed for and deployed on the APEX-SZ and South Pole Telescope millimeter wavelength receivers. In this system, the detector array is divided into modules of seven detectors, and each bolometer within the module is biased with a unique ∼MHz sinusoidal carrier such that the individual bolometer signals are well separated in frequency space. The currents from all bolometers in a module are summed together and pre-amplified with superconducting quantum interference devices operating at 4 K. Room temperature electronics demodulate the carriers to recover the bolometer signals, which are digitized separately and stored to disk. This readout system contributes little noise relative to the detectors themselves, is remarkably insensitive to unwanted microphonic excitations, and provides a technology pathway to multiplexing larger numbers of sensors.

The Atacama pathfinder experiment Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (APEX-SZ) instrument is a millimeter-wave cryogenic receiver designed to observe galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from the 12 m APEX telescope on the Atacama plateau in Chile. The receiver contains a focal plane of 280 superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers instrumented with a frequency-domain multiplexed readout system. The bolometers are cooled to 280 mK via a three-stage helium sorption refrigerator and a mechanical pulse-tube cooler. Three warm mirrors, two 4 K lenses, and a horn array couple the TES bolometers to the telescope. APEX-SZ observes in a single frequency band at 150 GHz with 1' angular resolution and a 22' field-of-view, all well suited for cluster mapping. The APEX-SZ receiver has played a key role in the introduction of several new technologies including TES bolometers, the frequency-domain multiplexed readout, and the use of a pulse-tube cooler with bolometers. As a result of these new technologies, the instrument has a higher instantaneous sensitivity and covers a larger field-of-view than earlier generations of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich instruments. The TES bolometers have a median sensitivity of 890 μK(CMB)√s (NEy of 3.5 × 10(-4) √s). We have also demonstrated upgraded detectors with improved sensitivity of 530 μK(CMB)√s (NEy of 2.2 × 10(-4) √s). Since its commissioning in April 2007, APEX-SZ has been used to map 48 clusters. We describe the design of the receiver and its performance when installed on the APEX telescope., (© 2011 American Institute of Physics)

We use the measurement of the cosmic microwave background taken during the MAXIMA-1 flight to estimate the bispectrum of cosmological perturbations. We propose an estimator for the bispectrum that is appropriate in the flat sky approximation, apply it to the MAXIMA-1 data, and evaluate errors using bootstrap methods. We compare the estimated value with what would be expected if the sky signal were Gaussian and find that it is indeed consistent, with a chi(2) per degree of freedom of approximately unity. This measurement places constraints on models of inflation.

Gaussianity of the cosmological perturbations is one of the key predictions of standard inflation, but it is violated by other models of structure formation such as cosmic defects. We present the first test of the Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on subdegree angular scales, where deviations from Gaussianity are most likely to occur. We apply the methods of moments, cumulants, the Kolmogorov test, the chi(2) test, and Minkowski functionals in eigen, real, Wiener-filtered, and signal-whitened spaces, to the MAXIMA-1 CMB anisotropy data. We find that the data, which probe angular scales between 10 arcmin and 5 deg, are consistent with Gaussianity. These results show consistency with the standard inflation and place constraints on the existence of cosmic defects.

We are developing superconducting transition-edge bolometers for far-infrared and millimeter wavelengths. The bolometers described here are suspended by thin legs of silicon nitride for thermal isolation. At frequencies between 200 mHz and 10-50 Hz these devices show white noise at their thermal fluctuation limit (NEP approximately 10(-17) W/ radicalHz). At higher frequencies a broad peak appears in the noise spectrum, which we attribute to a combination of thermal fluctuations in complex thermal circuits and electrothermal feedback. Detailed noise calculations fit the noise measured in three different devices that were specifically designed to test the model. We discuss how changes in bolometer materials can shift the noise peak above the frequency range of interest for most applications.

Recent results from BOOMERANG-98 and MAXIMA-1, taken together with COBE DMR, provide consistent and high signal-to-noise measurements of the cosmic microwave background power spectrum at spherical harmonic multipole bands over 2

We describe a measurement of the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at scales of 0&fdg;3 to 5 degrees from the North American test flight of the Boomerang experiment. Boomerang is a balloon-borne telescope with a bolometric receiver designed to map CMB anisotropies on a long-duration balloon flight. During a 6 hr test flight of a prototype system in 1997, we mapped more than 200 deg(2) at high Galactic latitudes in two bands centered at 90 and 150 GHz with a resolution of 26&arcmin; and 16&farcm;5 FWHM, respectively. Analysis of the maps gives a power spectrum with a peak at angular scales of 1 degrees with an amplitude 70 µK(CMB).

We present an experimental study of a composite voltage-biased superconducting bolometer (VSB). The tested VSB consists of a Ti-film superconducting thermometer (T(c) ~375 mK) on a Si substrate suspended by NbTi superconducting leads. A resistor attached to the substrate provides calibrated heat input into the bolometer. The current through the bolometer is measured with a superconducting quantum interference device ammeter. Strong negative electrothermal feedback fixes the bolometer temperature at T(c) and reduces the measured response time from 2.6 s to 13 ms. As predicted, the measured current responsivity of the bolometer is equal to the inverse of the bias voltage. A noise equivalent power of 5 x 10(-17) W/ radicalHz was measured for a thermal conductance G ~ 4.7 x 10(-10) W/K, which is consistent with the expected thermal noise. Excess noise was observed for bias conditions for which the electrothermal feedback strength was close to maximum.

We developed a far-infrared Fabry-Perot filter constructed from a single silicon substrate. The limiting resolving power caused by beam divergence of a silicon-gap Fabry-Perot filter is approximately 10 times higher than that of a vacuum-gap Fabry-Perot filter because of the large index of refraction of silicon. The filter thus permits compact, high-throughput optical systems. Metal mesh patterns microlithographed on each face provide enhanced, wavelength-dependent face reflectivity. We tested the performance of filters with metal mesh patterns consisting of inductive crosses and capacitive squares. A Fabry-Perot filter developed for a rocketborne astrophysics experiment with a capacitive square metal mesh pattern achieves a resolving power of λ/Δλ(FWHM) =160 at λ= 158 µm, with a peak transmittance of 37% over an active aperture of 6.9 mm for an ƒ/3.8 optical beam at 15° incidence. The absorptivity of a 240-µm thick silicon substrate patterned with capacitive metal mesh is A ≲ 1% per pass, including loss in both the silicon and the metal mesh.

The fabrication and optimization of composite submillimeter wave bolometers with metal film absorbing elements and doped Ge thermometers are described. Performance characteristics are given for 4 x 4-mm bolometers designed for operation at both (4)He and (3)He temperatures. The performance expected from such bolometers when they are optimized for various values of background loading is calculated. Current dependent noise, which can arise from any of several sources, is included in the analysis. This can make it impossible to reach the background fluctuation noise limit. Feed structures for these bolometers which employ Winston light concentrators are described.

The properties of bandpass filters for broadband photometry are reported in the 3-12-cm(-1) frequency range. The filters are based on a combination of capacitive grids deposited on thick Mylar substrates and are designed to have very high out-of-band rejection. Low frequencies are blocked by a thick grill that consists of a hexagonal grid of circular holes in a thick metal plate.