Project Title

Imaging the beginning of time from the South Pole: The next stage of the BICEP program

Summary

Event Number:
A-149-S
NSF/OPP Award 1638957

Program Manager:
Dr. Vladimir Papitashvili

ASC POC/Implementer:
Paul Sullivan / Sheryl Seagraves / Leah Street

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. John Kovac
jmkovac@cfa.harvard.edu
Harvard University
Department of Astronomy
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Project Web Site:
http://bicepkeck.org

Location

Supporting Stations: South Pole Station
Research Locations: Dark Sector.

Description

This project continues the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP)/Keck/BICEP3 program of observing cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization while also initiating the phased upgrade to the new BICEP array. This upgrade follows the tradition of improving upon the previous generation’s detectors housed in the mounts originally built for the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), then subsequently used by the Small Polarimeter Upgrade for DASI (SPUD) and, most recently, the Keck Array.

Field Season Overview

DEPLOYING This season the science team will focus on the second phase of the BICEP Array deployment. Four winterover grantees will deploy to be trained by the current winterover staff on tasking to maintain the telescopes. This reduction in staff and tasking is being directed by NSF in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deploying Team Members