CMB polarimetry with BICEP: instrument characterization, calibration, and performance

Understand

BICEP is a ground-based millimeter-wave bolometric array designed to target the primordial gravity wave signature on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at degree angular scales.

• Currently in its third year of operation at the South Pole, BICEP is measuring the CMB polarization with unprecedented sensitivity at 100 and 150 GHz in the cleanest available 2% of the sky, as well as deriving independent constraints on the diffuse polarized foregrounds with select observations on and off the Galactic plane.
• Instrument calibrations are discussed in the context of rigorous control of systematic errors, and the performance during the first two years of the experiment is reviewed.