C. Matt Bradford

Intensity Mapping of the [C II] Fine Structure Line During the Epoch of Reionization

The atomic C II fine-structure line is one of the brightest lines in a typical star-forming galaxy spectrum with a luminosity ~0.1%-1% of the bolometric luminosity. It is potentially a reliable tracer of the dense gas distribution at high redshifts and could provide an additional probe to the era of reionization. By taking into account the spontaneous, stimulated, and collisional emission of the C II line, we calculate the spin temperature and the mean intensity as a function of the redshift. When averaged over a cosmologically large volume, we find that the C II emission from ionized carbon in individual galaxies is larger than the signal generated by carbon in the intergalactic medium. Assuming that the C II luminosity is proportional to the carbon mass in dark matter halos, we also compute the power spectrum of the C II line intensity at various redshifts. In order to avoid the contamination from CO rotational lines at low redshift when targeting a C II survey at high redshifts, we propose the cross-correlation of C II and 21 cm line emission from high redshifts. To explore the detectability of the C II signal from reionization, we also evaluate the expected errors on the C II power spectrum and C II-21 cm cross power spectrum based on the design of the future millimeter surveys. We note that the C II-21 cm cross power spectrum contains interesting features that capture physics during reionization, including the ionized bubble sizes and the mean ionization fraction, which are challenging to measure from 21 cm data alone. We propose an instrumental concept for the reionization C II experiment targeting the frequency range of ~200-300 GHz with 1, 3, and 10 m apertures and a bolometric spectrometer array with 64 independent spectral pixels with about 20,000 bolometers.

Z-Spec: a broadband millimeter-wave grating spectrometer: design, construction, and first cryogenic measurements

We present the design, integration, and first ryogenic testing of our new broad-band millimeter-wave spectrometer, Z-Spec. Z-Spec uses a novel architecture called WaFIRS (Waveguide Far-IR Spectrometer), which employs a curved diffraction grating in a parallel-plate waveguide propagation medium. The instrument will provide a resolving power betwee 200 and 350 across an instantaneous bandwidth of 190-310 GHz, all packaged within a cryostat that is of order 1 meter in size. For background-limited astronomical observations in the 1mm terrestrial window, Z-Spec uses 160 silicon nitride micro-mesh bolometers and the detectors and waveguide grating are cooled to ~0.1 K. Our first cryogenic measurements at 225 GHz show resolving power greater than 200, and the end-to-end throughput is estimated to be greater than 30%, possibly as high as 40%. Z-Spec represents the first systematic approach to cosmological redshift measurement that is not based on optical or near-IR identifications. With its good sensitivity and large bandwidth, Z-Spec provides a new capability for millimeter-wave astrophysics. The instrument will be capable of measureing rotational carbon monoxide line emission from bright dusty galaxies at redshifts of up to 4, and the broad bandwidth insures that at least two lines will be simultaneously detected, providing an unambiguous redshift determination. In addition to Z-Specs observations over the next 1-3 years, the WaFIRS spectrometer architecture makes an excellent candidate for mid-IR to millimeter-wave spectrometers on future space-borned and suborbital platforms such as SPICA and SAFIR. The concept is dramatically more compact and lightweight than conventional free-space grating spectrometers, and no mirrors or lenses are used in the instrument. After the progress report on Z-Spec we highlight this capability.

SPIFI: A direct-detection imaging spectrometer for submillimeter wavelengths

The South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) is the first instrument of its kind-a direct-detection imaging spectrometer for astronomy in the submillimeter band. SPIFIs focal plane is a square array of 25 silicon bolometers cooled to 60 mK; the spectrometer consists of two cryogenic scanning Fabry-Perot interferometers in series with a 60-mK bandpass filter. The instrument operates in the short submillimeter windows (350 and 450 microm) available from the ground, with spectral resolving power selectable between 500 and 10,000. At present, SPIFIs sensitivity is within a factor of 1.5-3 of the photon background limit, comparable with the best heterodyne spectrometers. The instruments large bandwidth and mapping capability provide substantial advantages for specific astrophysical projects, including deep extragalactic observations. We present the motivation for and design of SPIFI and its operational characteristics on the telescope.

SPECTRAL LINE DE-CONFUSION IN AN INTENSITY MAPPING SURVEY

Spectral line intensity mapping has been proposed as a promising tool to efficiently probe the cosmic reionization and the large-scale structure. Without detecting individual sources, line intensity mapping makes use of all available photons and measures the integrated light in the source confusion limit, to efficiently map the three-dimensional matter distribution on large scales as traced by a given emission line. One particular challenge is the separation of desired signals from astrophysical continuum foregrounds and line interlopers. Here we present a technique to extract large-scale structure information traced by emission lines from different redshifts, embedded in a three-dimensional intensity mapping data cube. The line redshifts are distinguished by the anisotropic shape of the power spectra when projected onto a common coordinate frame. We consider the case where high-redshift [CII] lines are confused with multiple low-redshift CO rotational lines. We present a semi-analytic model for [CII] and CO line estimates based on the cosmic infrared background measurements, and show that with a modest instrumental noise level and survey geometry, the large-scale [CII] and CO power spectrum amplitudes can be successfully extracted from a confusion-limited data set, without external information. We discuss the implications and limits of this technique for possible line intensity mapping experiments.

CONSTRAINING THE ISM PROPERTIES OF THE CLOVERLEAF QUASAR HOST GALAXY WITH HERSCHEL SPECTROSCOPY

We present Herschel observations of far-infrared (FIR) fine-structure (FS) lines [CII]158

Detector modules and spectrometers for the TIME-Pilot [CII] intensity mapping experiment

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Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope primary mirror surface sensing and controllability

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The Origins Space Telescope

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Instrumentation for the next generation cryogenic spaceborne far-IR observatories

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Z-Spec: a broadband millimeter-wave grating spectrometer -- design, construction, and first cryogenic measurements

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