The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (Jan 2025)
Simons Observatory: Predeployment Performance of a Large Aperture Telescope Optics Tube in the 90 and 150 GHz Spectral Bands
- Carlos E. Sierra,
- Kathleen Harrington,
- Shreya Sutariya,
- Thomas Alford,
- Anna M. Kofman,
- Grace E. Chesmore,
- Jason E. Austermann,
- Andrew Bazarko,
- James A. Beall,
- Tanay Bhandarkar,
- Mark J. Devlin,
- Simon R. Dicker,
- Peter N. Dow,
- Shannon M. Duff,
- Daniel Dutcher,
- Nicholas Galitzki,
- Joseph E. Golec,
- John C. Groh,
- Jon E. Gudmundsson,
- Saianeesh K. Haridas,
- Erin Healy,
- Johannes Hubmayr,
- Jeffrey Iuliano,
- Bradley R. Johnson,
- Claire S. Lessler,
- Richard A. Lew,
- Michael J. Link,
- Tammy J. Lucas,
- Jeffrey J. McMahon,
- Jenna E. Moore,
- Federico Nati,
- Michael D. Niemack,
- Benjamin L. Schmitt,
- Max Silva-Feaver,
- Robinjeet Singh,
- Rita F. Sonka,
- Alex Thomas,
- Robert J. Thornton,
- Tran Tsan,
- Joel N. Ullom,
- Jeffrey L. Van Lanen,
- Eve M. Vavagiakis,
- Michael R. Vissers,
- Yuhan Wang,
- Kaiwen Zheng
Affiliations
- Carlos E. Sierra
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Kathleen Harrington
- ORCiD
- High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory , Lemont, IL 60439, USA; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Shreya Sutariya
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]
- Thomas Alford
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]
- Anna M. Kofman
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Grace E. Chesmore
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]
- Jason E. Austermann
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Andrew Bazarko
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- James A. Beall
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Tanay Bhandarkar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Mark J. Devlin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Simon R. Dicker
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Peter N. Dow
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
- Shannon M. Duff
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Daniel Dutcher
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- Nicholas Galitzki
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA; Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics , Texas Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Joseph E. Golec
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- John C. Groh
- ORCiD
- Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley, CA 94702, USA
- Jon E. Gudmundsson
- ORCiD
- Science Institute, University of Iceland , 107 Reykjavik, Iceland; The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University , SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Saianeesh K. Haridas
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Erin Healy
- ORCiD
- Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Johannes Hubmayr
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Jeffrey Iuliano
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Bradley R. Johnson
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
- Claire S. Lessler
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Richard A. Lew
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Michael J. Link
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Tammy J. Lucas
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Jeffrey J. McMahon
- Department of Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Jenna E. Moore
- ORCiD
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Federico Nati
- ORCiD
- Departiment of Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca , Milan, MI, 20126, Italy
- Michael D. Niemack
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Department of Astronomy, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Benjamin L. Schmitt
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Max Silva-Feaver
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Wright Laboratory, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Robinjeet Singh
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Rita F. Sonka
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- Alex Thomas
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Robert J. Thornton
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Tran Tsan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California San Diego , San Diego, CA 92093, USA
- Joel N. Ullom
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Jeffrey L. Van Lanen
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Eve M. Vavagiakis
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Cornell University , Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Michael R. Vissers
- ORCiD
- Quantum Sensors Division , NIST, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
- Yuhan Wang
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- Kaiwen Zheng
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ad8cdc
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 276,
no. 1
p. 31
Abstract
The Simons Observatory will map the temperature and polarization over half of the sky at millimeter wavelengths in six spectral bands from the Atacama Desert in Chile. These data will provide new insights into the genesis, content, and history of our Universe, the astrophysics of galaxies and galaxy clusters, objects in our solar system, and time-varying astrophysical phenomena. This ambitious new instrument suite, initially comprising three 0.5 m diameter small aperture telescopes and one 6 m diameter large aperture telescope, is designed using a common combination of new technologies and new implementations to realize an observatory significantly more sensitive than the previous generation. In this paper, we present the predeployment performance of the first mid-frequency “optics tube,” which will be fielded on the large aperture telescope with sensitivity to the 90 and 150 GHz spectral bands. This optics tube contains lenses, filters, detectors, and readout components, all of which operate at cryogenic temperatures. It is one of seven that form the core of the large aperture telescope receiver in its initial deployment. We describe this optics tube, including details of comprehensive testing methods, new techniques for beam and passband characterization, and its measured performance. The performance metrics include beams, optical efficiency, passbands, and forecasts for the on-sky performance of the system. We forecast a sensitivity that exceeds the requirements of the large aperture telescope with greater than 30% margin in each spectral band and predict that the instrument will realize diffraction-limited performance and the expected detector passbands.
Keywords
- Observational cosmology
- CMBR detectors
- Polarimeters
- Astronomical instrumentation
- Observatories
- Ground telescopes
