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Microwave Background interferometry in Cambridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Michael E. Jones*
Affiliation:
Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K.

Abstract

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Interferometric methods of studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) have some distinct advantages over the switched-beam techniques which have mostly been used. However, most existing interferometers are not well suited to CMB observations, for a variety of reasons. These include poor temperature sensitivity due to a low filling factor, and systematic effects which limit the maximum possible integration time. A new instrument, the Ryle Telescope, has been developed in Cambridge which has a high temperature sensitivity (120 μK in 12 h) and the ability to integrate for several hundred hours on the same field. It will be used to study the CMB on angular scales of a few arcminutes, with particular emphasis on the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect. A second instrument to study the CMB on angular scales of tens of arcminutes, the Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope (CAT), is also being developed.

Type
Interferometric Telescopes
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1991

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