Kavli Affiliate: Ethan D. Karpel
| First 5 Authors: The Simons Observatory Collaboration, Maximilian H. Abitbol, Shunsuke Adachi, Peter Ade, James Aguirre
| Summary:
The Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background
(CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that
promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology,
and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons
Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see
first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287
collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and
90 postdocs.
The SO experiment in its currently funded form (‘SO-Nominal’) consists of
three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture
Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization
measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep,
degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial
gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute
resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino
masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and
refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of
feedback in galaxy formation.
With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of
the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping
speed over currently operating ("Stage 3") experiments, SO will measure the CMB
temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six
frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while
informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4.
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