Measurement of the polarized Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) over the past few decades has enabled precision probes of the evolutionary history, composition, and dynamics of the primordial Universe. Next-generation CMB experiments will extend this scientific reach, allowing for tests of the inflationary theory of the early Universe, driven through constraints on the tensor-scalar ratio "r"...
The spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is remarkably close to a 2.725K blackbody. However, small deviations are expected, due to several interesting pre- and post- recombination phenomena. Here we describe an instrument, the COSmic Monopole Observer (COSMO), aimed at measuring the largest spectral distortion in the 100-300 GHz range using a cryogenic Differential Fourier...
The South Pole provides one of the most pristine sites on Earth for observations of the microwave sky, enabling studies of a host of astrophysical and cosmological phenomena. The South Pole Telescope (SPT), online at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station since 2007, takes advantage of the stable desert climate to image the sky with unprecedented sensitivity. The third-generation camera, SPT-3G,...
The theory of cosmological inflation was developed in response to longstanding questions about the origins of our universe. It predicts a specific spectrum of density perturbations that arose during the Big Bang, which has been corroborated by observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This talk will focus on a decisive prediction of inflation that has so far eluded observational...
SPIDER is a balloon-borne CMB polarimeter that has measured 4.8% of the sky with degree-scale angular resolution. Launching from McMurdo, Antarctica, we benefit from the high altitude and long flights achievable from NASA’s Long Duration Balloon facility, which provides access to space-like observing conditions. Using the data from our first flight in 2015, SPIDER published a constraint on...
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons crossing galaxy clusters
can be scattered by hot electrons in the ionized intracluster medium
(ICM). This results in a small change of the spectrum of the CMB in
the direction of clusters of galaxies. The spectrum of the effect is
characteristic, with a brightness decrease at f < 217 GHz and an
increase at f > 217 GHz, independent of the redshift...
Solaris is a scientific and technological project aimed at the development of a smart Solar monitoring system at high radio frequencies based on single-dish imaging techniques (https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/solaris). It combines the implementation of dedicated and interchangeable high-frequency receivers on existing small single-dish radio telescope systems (1.5/2.6m class) available in our...
COSMO experiment is aimed at detecting CMB spectral distortions from Concordia Station in Antarctica.
It is based on a cryogenic FFT spectrometer using KIDs as fast detectors. The reduced number of pixels and the fast acquisition rate, tens of kHz, prompted us to develop an in-house heterodyne readout electronics based on commercial components. In this contribution I will describe in detail...
