The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE)

Alan Kogut; David T. Chuss; Jessie Dotson; Dale J. Fixsen; Mark Halpern; Gary F. Hinshaw; Stephan Meyer; S. Harvey Moseley; Michael D. Seiffert; David N. Spergel; Edward J. Wollack

doi:10.1117/12.892558

14 September 2011 The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE)

Alan Kogut, David T. Chuss, Jessie Dotson, Dale J. Fixsen, Mark Halpern, Gary F. Hinshaw, Stephan Meyer, S. Harvey Moseley, Michael D. Seiffert, David N. Spergel, Edward J. Wollack

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8146, UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts V; 81460T (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.892558
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Primordial Inflation Explorer is an Explorer-class mission to measure the gravity-wave signature of primordial inflation through its distinctive imprint on the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background. PIXIE uses an innovative optical design to achieve background-limited sensitivity in 400 spectral channels spanning 2.5 decades in frequency from 30 GHz to 6 THz (1 cm to 50 μm wavelength). Multi-moded non-imaging optics feed a polarizing Fourier Transform Spectrometer to produce a set of interference fringes, proportional to the difference spectrum between orthogonal linear polarizations from the two input beams. The differential design and multiple signal modulations spanning 11 orders of magnitude in time combine to reduce the instrumental signature and confusion from unpolarized sources to negligible levels. PIXIE will map the full sky in Stokes I, Q, and U parameters with angular resolution 2.°6 and sensitivity 0.2 μK per 1° square pixel. The principal science goal is the detection and characterization of linear polarization from an inflationary epoch in the early universe, with tensor-to-scalar ratio r < 10^-3 at 5 standard deviations. We describe the PIXIE instrument and mission architecture needed to detect the signature of an inflationary epoch in the early universe using only 4 semiconductor bolometers.

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Alan Kogut, David T. Chuss, Jessie Dotson, Dale J. Fixsen, Mark Halpern, Gary F. Hinshaw, Stephan Meyer, S. Harvey Moseley, Michael D. Seiffert, David N. Spergel, and Edward J. Wollack "The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE)", Proc. SPIE 8146, UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts V, 81460T (14 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.892558

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