In force date
Investigator
José Alberto
Rubiño Martín
Financial institution
Financing subprogram
Amount granted to the IAC Consortium
254.100,00 €
Description
| The main goal of this project is to ensure the scientific exploitation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments in which the IAC's cosmology group will be involved in the period 2018-2020: QUIJOTE, PLANCK and the new experiments to be installed at the Teide Observatory (TO) in this period (GroundBird, STRIP, KISS). The specific goals of this project are: I) To carry out the operation and scientific exploitation of the QUIJOTE experiment. QUIJOTE consists of two telescopes (QT1 and QT2) and three instruments (MFI, TGI and FGI). Both the QT1 and MFI are in operation since November 2012, and QT2 since 2015. The commissioning and calibration phase of TGI and FGI is taking place during 2017 and early 2018. In combination with the PLANCK data, we will study the implications on the CMB polarization anisotropies (E and B modes), the inflationary epoch and primordial gravitational waves. In addition, we plan for the fabrication of an upgraded MFI instrument, to guarantee that the scientific objectives will be achieved in a competitive time scale, and also a microwave spectrometer in the 10-20 GHz band, that will complement the scientific goals of QUIJOTE. Both instruments are already funded by the spanish "Infrastructure plan". II) To carry out the scientific exploitation of the new CMB polarization experiments to be installed at the TO during 2018: GroundBird, LSPE-STRIP and KISS. We will combine the data of these experiments with the QUIJOTE maps, improving our ability to disentangle the cosmological B-mode signal from the Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds. Taken all together, this set of experiments will consolidate the TO as a reference observatory for CMB studies, covering an extremely broad and unique range of frequencies, from 10 to 280 GHz. III) To finalise the scientific exploitation of the optical follow-up efforts to characterise the two catalogues of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources detected by PLANCK (PSZ1 and PSZ2), by identifying the galaxy cluster counterparts and measuring their redshifts. The associated observations correspond to two long-term programs already finished (ITP2013-15 and LP2015-17, PI: J.A.Rubiño), with more than 120 observing nights in ORM telescopes (GTC, WHT, TNG, INT). We will publish the results associated to more than 300 new galaxy clusters, and we will use the final catalogue to characterize the evolution of the cluster mass function n(M,z), and to establish the implications in the determination of key cosmological parameters as the dark energy equation of state and the neutrino masses. The final catalogues will be also used to plan one of the future surveys of WEAVE. IV) To combine the information contained in these experiments with other cosmological probes, with the aim of providing the best possible constraints on inflation and primordial gravitational waves, the dark matter and the dynamical properties of the dark energy, and the properties of the neutrinos (masses and relativistic degrees of freedom). V) To design the next-generation instrumentation for CMB studies from the TO in the next decade, consolidating the already-existing international collaborations, and following the plan described in the "Estudio de Prospectiva de la RIA" in cosmology. We will continue our participation in E-CMB, a discussion pannel where we are preparing a roadmap for a coordinated European CMB program, considering ground and balloon-based experiments, or a possible space CMB mission (CORE). |
