LiteBIRD, the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. JAXA selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with its expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA's H3 rocket. LiteBIRD plans to map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization over the full sky with unprecedented precision. Its main scientific objective is to carry out a definitive search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with an insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. To this end, LiteBIRD will perform full-sky surveys for three years at the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2 for 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz with three telescopes, to achieve a total sensitivity of 2.16 μK-arcmin with a typical angular resolution of 0.5° at 100 GHz. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission requirements, top-level system requirements, operation concept, and expected scientific outcomes.
LiteBIRD has been selected as JAXA’s strategic large mission in the 2020s, to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization over the full sky at large angular scales. The challenges of LiteBIRD are the wide field-of-view (FoV) and broadband capabilities of millimeter-wave polarization measurements, which are derived from the system requirements. The possible paths of stray light increase with a wider FoV and the far sidelobe knowledge of -56 dB is a challenging optical requirement. A crossed-Dragone configuration was chosen for the low frequency telescope (LFT : 34–161 GHz), one of LiteBIRD’s onboard telescopes. It has a wide field-of-view (18° x 9°) with an aperture of 400 mm in diameter, corresponding to an angular resolution of about 30 arcminutes around 100 GHz. The focal ratio f/3.0 and the crossing angle of the optical axes of 90◦ are chosen after an extensive study of the stray light. The primary and secondary reflectors have rectangular shapes with serrations to reduce the diffraction pattern from the edges of the mirrors. The reflectors and structure are made of aluminum to proportionally contract from warm down to the operating temperature at 5 K. A 1/4 scaled model of the LFT has been developed to validate the wide field-of-view design and to demonstrate the reduced far sidelobes. A polarization modulation unit (PMU), realized with a half-wave plate (HWP) is placed in front of the aperture stop, the entrance pupil of this system. A large focal plane with approximately 1000 AlMn TES detectors and frequency multiplexing SQUID amplifiers is cooled to 100 mK. The lens and sinuous antennas have broadband capability. Performance specifications of the LFT and an outline of the proposed verification plan are presented.
LiteBIRD is a JAXA-led Strategic Large-Class mission designed to search for the existence of the primordial gravitational waves produced during the inflationary phase of the Universe, through the measurements of their imprint onto the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). These measurements, requiring unprecedented sensitivity, will be performed over the full sky, at large angular scales, and over 15 frequency bands from 34 GHz to 448 GHz. The LiteBIRD instruments consist of three telescopes, namely the Low-, Medium-and High-Frequency Telescope (respectively LFT, MFT and HFT). We present in this paper an overview of the design of the Medium-Frequency Telescope (89{224 GHz) and the High-Frequency Telescope (166{448 GHz), the so-called MHFT, under European responsibility, which are two cryogenic refractive telescopes cooled down to 5 K. They include a continuous rotating half-wave plate as the first optical element, two high-density polyethylene (HDPE) lenses and more than three thousand transition-edge sensor (TES) detectors cooled to 100 mK. We provide an overview of the concept design and the remaining specific challenges that we have to face in order to achieve the scientific goals of LiteBIRD.
LiteBIRD is a next generation satellite aiming for the detection of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) B-mode polarization imprinted by the primordial gravitational waves generated in the era of the inflationary universe. The science goal of LiteBIRD is to measure the tensor-to-scaler ratio r with a precision of δr < 10-3♦, offering us a crucial test of the major large-single-field slow-roll inflation models. LiteBIRD is planned to conduct an all sky survey at the sun-earth second Lagrange point (L2) with an angular resolution of about 0.5 degrees to cover the multipole moment range of 2 ≤ ℓ ≤ 200. We use focal plane detector arrays consisting of 2276 superconducting detectors to measure the frequency range from 40 to 400 GHz with the sensitivity of
3.2 μK·arcmin. including the ongoing studies.
We present the mission design of LiteBIRD, a next generation satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and inflation from cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) detection. The science goal of LiteBIRD is to measure the CMB polarization with the sensitivity of δr = 0:001, and this allows testing the major single-field slow-roll inflation models experimentally. The LiteBIRD instrumental design is purely driven to achieve this goal. At the earlier stage of the mission design, several key instrumental specifications, e.g. observing band, optical system, scan strategy, and orbit, need to be defined in order to process the rest of the detailed design. We have gone through the feasibility studies for these items in order to understand the tradeoffs between the requirements from the science goal and the compatibilities with a satellite bus system. We describe the overview of LiteBIRD and discuss the tradeoffs among the choices of scientific instrumental specifications and strategies. The first round of feasibility studies will be completed by the end of year 2014 to be ready for the mission definition review and the target launch date is in early 2020s.
LiteBIRD [Lite (Light) satellite for the studies of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background
Radiation Detection] is a small satellite to map the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
radiation over the full sky at large angular scales with unprecedented precision. Cosmological inflation, which
is the leading hypothesis to resolve the problems in the Big Bang theory, predicts that primordial gravitational
waves were created during the inflationary era. Measurements of polarization of the CMB radiation are known as
the best probe to detect the primordial gravitational waves. The LiteBIRD working group is authorized by the
Japanese Steering Committee for Space Science (SCSS) and is supported by JAXA. It has more than 50 members
from Japan, USA and Canada. The scientific objective of LiteBIRD is to test all the representative inflation models that satisfy single-field slow-roll conditions and lie in the large-field regime. To this end, the requirement
on the precision of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, at LiteBIRD is equal to or less than 0.001. Our baseline design
adopts an array of multi-chroic superconducting polarimeters that are read out with high multiplexing factors in
the frequency domain for a compact focal plane. The required sensitivity of 1.8μKarcmin is achieved with 2000
TES bolometers at 100mK. The cryogenic system is based on the Stirling/JT technology developed for SPICA,
and the continuous ADR system shares the design with future X-ray satellites.
Terahertz interferometry from high altitude site in Antarctica is proposed. Requirements for future terahertz astronomy
are followed by comparison of interferometer technologies. Heterodyne interferometer can use matured technology and
achieve high frequency resolution, whereas, direct detector interferometer can achieve observations in large bandwidth
and wide field of view using focal plane arrays. As an example of direct detector interferometry multi-Fourier transform
interferometer (MuFT) is introduced, which utilize Martin-Puplett type Fourier transform spectrometer, which is
essential to realize multiplying interferometry to avoid atmospheric background fluctuation. As another example, photon
counting interferometry is introduced. By implementing fast response FIR detectors to measure photon arrival time,
visibility can be measured by the correlation of the photon statistics.
There are two different types of beam combination: Fizeau interferometer and Michelson interferometer.
Pupil plane beam combination is referred as Fizeau interferometer. On the other hand, image plane beam
combination is referred as Michelson interferometer. In general, working principles of Michelson
interferometers are based on double Fourier interferometry. It is possible to acquire two-dimensional
spatial and one-dimensional spectral information of the sky by applying a Fourier transform spectrometer
algorithm and the Van Cittert-Zernike theorem. This imaging scheme is referred to as the double Fourier
interferometry. On the other hand, it is so far thought to be difficult to perform the imaging with a Fizeau
interferometer, because Fizeau interferometers basically don't have a delay line that is equipped with
Michelson interferometers. Here, Matsuo et al.1 presented a new spectral imaging method for Fizeau
interferometers, based on double Fourier interferometry. They noticed that a delay axis in Michelson
interferometers is equal to the axis of a fringe pattern on an image plane in Fizeau interferometers.
Therefore, this new approach can acquire three-dimensional information of the sky using a linear array
detector placed on the image plane. In this paper, we compare the new spectral imaging method for
Fizeau interferometer with the conventional one used for Michelson interferometer and discuss spectral
resolutions and field of views of these imaging methods.
We have proposed an original Michelson type bolometric interferometer dedicated to CMB B mode observations
in which a large format detector array is able to mounted on the focal plane since the diameter of the primary
beam do not have to be smaller than the baseline length of the interferometer and is able to be taken as large as
one want. This instrument is named as MuFTPol. The MuFTPol dramatically improves the sensitivity of the
B mode experiments based on Michelson type bolometric interferometer otherwise the primary beam size could
not be larger than 10cm in the CMB B mode experiment targetting the gravity wave origin B mode.
We propose an instrument by applying the aperture synthesis technique to the Martin & Puplett type Fourier Transform Spectrometer in millimeter and sub-millimeter waves. We call this equipment Multi-Fourier Transform interferometer (MuFT). MuFT realizes a wide band imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry in millimeter and sub-millimeter waves. The direct detectors, eg. bolometer, SIS video detector, can be used as the focal plane detectors. These type of detectors have a great advantage in FIR band since they are free from the quantum limit of the noise which limits the sensitivity of the heterodyne detectors used in the usual interferometers. Further, the direct detectors are able to make a large format array contrary to the usual interferometers in which usage of array detector is practically difficult. Above three characteristics make one be possible to develop high sensitive super broad band FIR interferometer with wide field of view. Fundamentals of the MuFT with results of laboratory experiments and current status of astronomical observations with MuFT are summarized. We did test observation with this system in the winter 2005. We also report concerning the observational result in 2006.
We are developing the super broad band interferometer by applying the
Fourier Transform Spectrometer(FTS) to aperture synthesis system in mm and sub-mm bands. We have constructed a compact system based on the Martin and Puplett type Fourier Transform spectrometer (MP-FT).
We call this equipment Multi-Fourier Transform interferometer (MuFT).
The band width of the system can be extended as large as one wants contrary to the severely limited band width of the usual interferometer due to the speed of the AD converter. The direct detectors, e.g. bolometer, SIS video detector, can be used as the focal plane detectors. This type of detectors have a great advantage in FIR band since they are free from the quantum limit of the noise which limits the sensitivity of the heterodyne detectors used in the usual interferometers. Further, the direct detectors are able to make a large format array contrary to the heterodyne detectors for which construction of a large format array is practically difficult. These three characteristics make one be possible to develop high sensitive super broad band FIR interferometer with wide field of view. In the laboratory experiments, we have succeeded in measuring the spectroscopically resolved 2D image of the source in 150GHz-900GHz band. The future application of this technique to the observations from the space could open new interesting possibilities in FIR astronomy.
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