2011 Theses Doctoral

Results from the QUIET Q-Band Observing Season

Dumoulin, Robert Nicolas

The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) is a ground-based telescope located in the high Atacama Desert in Chile, and is designed to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in the Q and W frequency bands (43 and 95 GHz respectively) using coherent polarimeters. From 2008 October to 2010 December, data from more than 10,000 observing hours were collected, first with the Q-band receiver (2008 October to 2009 June) and then with the W-band receiver (until the end of the 2010 observing season).

The QUIET data analysis effort uses two independent pipelines, one consisting of a maximum likelihood framework and the other consisting of a pseudo-C` framework. Both pipelines employ blind analysis methods, and each provides analysis of the data using large suites of null tests specific to the pipeline. Analysis of the Q-band receiver data was completed in November of 2010, confirming the only previous detection of the first acoustic peak of the EE power spectrum and setting competitive limits on the scalar-totensor ratio, r. In this dissertation, the results from the Q-band observing season using the maximum likelihood pipeline will be presented.