3:30–5:00 pm ERC 161
Title: The Pre-deployment Optical Characterization and Commissioning of the Simons Observatory
Abstract: The Simons Observatory (SO) is a next generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiment that is undergoing commissioning in the Chilean Atacama Desert. SO’s scientific objectives encompass the characterization of inflationary gravitational waves and the number of relativistic species in the early universe as well as the measurement of the sum of the neutrino masses, improving our understanding of galaxy evolution, constraining the duration of reionization and much more. SO will accomplish these goals using a single 6-m large-aperture telescope (LAT) to focus on the smaller angular scales and 0.5-m small-aperture telescopes (SATs) to focus on the larger angular scales. In their initial configurations, these telescopes will contain nearly 60,000 microwave multiplexed transition edge sensor bolometers spread across six frequency bands from 30-280 GHz. I will review the scientific objectives of Simons Observatory as well as the survey and instrument designs. I will then discuss the pre-deployment optical testing and characterization of the LAT optics tubes as well as early commissioning measurements from the SATs.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/93381746022?pwd=154p1wHz69diNZPS9Ar47URvOUCOcz.1
