2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Development of Measurement Techniques for the Observation of the Circular Polarization of CMB
| Project/Area Number |
17K18785
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Particle-, Nuclear-, Astro-physics, and related fields
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo (2019-2020)
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (2017-2018) |
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Principal Investigator |
Nishino Haruki 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科(理学部), 特任助教 (80706804)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-06-30 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | 宇宙マイクロ波背景放射 / 円偏光 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research project has been targeting an improvement of the sensitivity of the circular polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Several CMB polarization projects have been using half-wave plates as a polarization signal modulator. We have worked on the characterizations of a half-wave plate to extract circular polarization information from the experimental data of CMB (linear) polarization experiments. We have re-analyzed the half-wave plate measurement data in a lab and estimated the mixing term of linear and circular polarizations. Our study has shown that the reanalysis of the existing CMB linear polarization data should provide us new meaningful insights into the circular polarization of CMB.
Moreover, we have developed a quarter wave-plate for a future experimental project. We confirmed that the prototype had expected circular polarization performances.
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| Free Research Field |
宇宙物理学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
宇宙マイクロ波背景放射は観測可能な宇宙最古の光であり、その観測はこれまでにも宇宙の起源に関する情報を人類にもたらしてきた。しかしながら、これまで測定されてきたのはその光の持つ情報のうちの一つの側面でしかなく、これまで見ていなかった方の側面に全く予想もしなかった情報が隠れている可能性もある。本研究はそうした隠れた側面を解き明かすことに挑戦し、それを解き明かすことで人類がこの世界の成り立ちについて新たな知見を得ることを目指したものである。本研究の成果により、将来的にそうしたことを実現する最初の一歩を踏み出すことができたと考えている。
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