Systematics of an ambient-temperature, rapidly-rotating half-wave plate

T. Essinger-Hileman; A. Kusaka; J. W. Appel; P. Gallardo; K. D. Irwin; N. Jarosik; M. R. Nolta; L. A. Page; L. P. Parker; S. Raghunathan; J. L. Sievers; S. M. Simon; S. T. Staggs; K. Visnjic

doi:10.1117/12.2232711

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19 July 2016 Systematics of an ambient-temperature, rapidly-rotating half-wave plate

T. Essinger-Hileman, A. Kusaka, J. W. Appel, P. Gallardo, K. D. Irwin, N. Jarosik, M. R. Nolta, L. A. Page, L. P. Parker, S. Raghunathan, J. L. Sievers, S. M. Simon, S. T. Staggs, K. Visnjic

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Proceedings Volume 9914, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII; 991415 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232711
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

In these proceedings, we summarize our in-field evaluation of temperature-to-polarization leakage associated with the use of a continuously-rotating, ambient-temperature half-wave plate (HWP) on the Atacama B-Mode Search (ABS) experiment. Using two seasons of data, we demonstrate scalar leakage of ∼ 0.01%. This is consistent with model expectations and an order of magnitude better than any previously-reported leakage. We constrain higher-order dipole and quadrupole leakage terms to be < 0.06% (95% confidence). Without any mitigation from scan cross-linking or boresight rotation, this corresponds to an upper limit on systematic errors in the tensor-to-scalar ratio r ;S 0.01. The HWP significantly reduces temperature-to-polarization leakage systematic errors for ABS and shows the promise of fast polarization modulation with HWPs for future experiments. Full details can be found in Ref. 1.

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T. Essinger-Hileman, A. Kusaka, J. W. Appel, P. Gallardo, K. D. Irwin, N. Jarosik, M. R. Nolta, L. A. Page, L. P. Parker, S. Raghunathan, J. L. Sievers, S. M. Simon, S. T. Staggs, and K. Visnjic "Systematics of an ambient-temperature, rapidly-rotating half-wave plate", Proc. SPIE 9914, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 991415 (19 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232711

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