The QMAP and MAT/TOCO Experiments for Measuring Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background

Authors

A. Miller, Princeton University
J. Beach, Princeton University
S. Bradley, Princeton University
R. Caldwell, Dartmouth CollegeFollow
H. Chapman, University of Pennsylvania
M. J. Devlin, University of Pennsylvania
W. B. Devlin, University of Pennsylvania
W. B. Dorwart, Princeton University
T. Herbig, Princeton University
D. Jones, University of Pennsylvania
G. Monnelly, Princeton University
C. B. Netterfield, Princeton University
M. Nolta, Princeton University
L. A. Page, Princeton University
J. Puchalla, University of Pennsylvania
T. Robertson, Princeton University
E. Torbet, Princeton University
H. T. Tran, Princeton University
W. E. Vinje, Princeton University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-16-2002

Publication Title

The Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

We describe two related experiments that measured the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). QMAP was a balloon-borne telescope that flew twice in 1996, collecting data on degree angular scales with an array of six high electron mobility transistor-based amplifiers (HEMTs). QMAP used an interlocking scan strategy to directly produce high signal-to-noise ratio CMB maps over a limited region of sky. The QMAP gondola was then refitted for ground-based work as the MAT/TOCO experiment. Observations were made from 5200 m on Cerro Toco in Northern Chile in 1997 and 1998 using time domain beam synthesis. MAT/TOCO measured the rise and fall of the CMB angular spectrum, thereby localizing the position of the first peak to l_peak = 216 ± 14. In addition to describing the instruments, we discuss the data selection methods, check for systematic errors, and compare the MAT/TOCO results to those from recent experiments. The previously reported data are updated to account for a small calibration shift and corrected to account for a small contribution from known sources of foreground emission. The resulting amplitude of the first peak for 160 < l < 240 is δT_peak = 80.9 ± 3.4 ± 5.1 μK, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is from calibration.

DOI

10.1086/339686

Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation

Miller, A.; Beach, J.; Bradley, S.; Caldwell, R.; Chapman, H.; Devlin, M. J.; Devlin, W. B.; Dorwart, W. B.; Herbig, T.; Jones, D.; Monnelly, G.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nolta, M.; Page, L. A.; Puchalla, J.; Robertson, T.; Torbet, E.; Tran, H. T.; and Vinje, W. E., "The QMAP and MAT/TOCO Experiments for Measuring Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background" (2002). Dartmouth Scholarship. 3442.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/3442