3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161
Michael Niemack (Cornell University) "New windows in the submillimeter sky with the CCAT Observatory"
The CCAT Observatory is building the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope, a novel, high-throughput, 6-meter aperture telescope, to enable a wide range of new measurements. The science goals include line-intensity mapping of cosmic reionization, studying galaxy clusters, galactic magnetic fields, astronomical transients, and others. The Observatory will be located at 5600 meters on Cerro Chajnantor, Chile. I highlight the complementarity of CCAT and related experiments, including recent results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and plans for Simons Observatory and CMB-S4. I detail CCAT's submillimeter measurement capabilities with its first high-throughput science receiver: Prime-Cam. This camera is designed to support over 10^5 kinetic inductance detectors and enable over 10x faster mapping speed than previous submillimeter observatories in submillimeter windows from 0.3 – 1.1 mm (280 – 850 GHz). We describe the project status, plans for early science observations starting in 2025, and possible future line-intensity mapping upgrades to probe cosmology.
