Gravity Group Seminar, Steven Benton & Shuay-Pwu (Patty) Ho (Princeton University)

Date
Dec 16, 2016, 12:00 pm1:30 pm
Location
Joseph Henry Room

Details

Event Description

Steve Benton "Report on SuperBIT's 2016 Test Flight" ABSTRACT | SuperBIT is a wide-field sub-arcsecond imaging telescope for visible and near UV/IR wavelengths. It is designed to operate in the space-like environment of the Super-Pressure Balloon platform at an altitude of 35 km. During a 100 day flight it will infer masses of hundreds of galaxy clusters via weak lensing. On June 30, 2016, SuperBIT flew a one-night test flight from Palestine, TX. In this talk I report on the integration campaign, test flight, and plans for the ultra-long duration science flight. Shuay-Pwu (Patty) Ho "Developments of ground-based detectors for CMB and the performance of the 1st high density array for AdvACT" ABSTRACT | I will start with the current developments of CMB ground-based detectors. Better detector sensitivity and larger number of pixel counts, coupled with optical designs are critical for CMB detections. A summary of the bolometer sensitivities and array sizes of several ground based telescopes in recent years will be shown. Then I will focus on the first array of AdvACT, which was recently deployed and began its observations. This array features ~2000 AlMn transition edge sensor bolometers operating at 150 and 230 GHz. I will review all details of its detector optimization, the array assembly and the array characterization.