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    Design and analysis of a quasi-optical beam combiner for the QUBIC CMB interferometer


    Bennett, D. (2014) Design and analysis of a quasi-optical beam combiner for the QUBIC CMB interferometer. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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    Abstract

    In winter 2009 a number of physicists met in Paris to discuss the prospect of observing the CMB B-mode polarization using a novel technique called bolometric interferometry. This was the first meeting of what would later become the QUBIC collaboration. In this thesis we discuss the scientific reasons for CMB observation, we present a detailed explanation of how QUBIC will use bolometric interferometry to measure CMB polarization and in particular we discuss the author's contribution to the project. As part of the sub-mm optics research group in the National University of Ireland Maynooth the author was charged with the design and modeling of the optics that would focus the beam from the sky onto the bolometric detectors. This thesis describes various types of re ecting and refracting optics that were investigated. The results we present are useful not only for the QUBIC instrument, but for the design of imaging experiments in general. Detection of CMB B-mode polarization is one of the supreme goals of modern cosmology. The faintness of this signal, combined with the interferometric observing technique, places extreme performance specifications on the QUBIC optics. Fortunately, as we shall show, there are types of well-known re ecting and refracting telescopes that are suitable for QUBIC. In this thesis I propose a design for the quasi-optical combiner that will perform as required.

    Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
    Keywords: quasi-optical beam combiner; QUBIC CMB interferometer;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Experimental Physics
    Item ID: 5441
    Depositing User: IR eTheses
    Date Deposited: 30 Sep 2014 09:28
    URI:
      Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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