The Polatron: A Millimeter-Wave Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimeter for the OVRO 5.5 m Telescope

Abstract

We describe the development of a bolometric receiver designed to measure the arcminute-scale polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The Polatron will be mounted at the Cassegrain focus of the 5.5 m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO). The receiver will measure both the Q and U Stokes parameters over a 20% pass-band centered near 100 GHz, with the input polarization signal modulated at ~0.6 Hz by a rotating, birefringent, quartz half-wave plate. In six months of observation we plan to observe ~400 2.5 arcminute pixels in a ring about the North Celestial Pole to a precision of ~6 μK/pixel in each of Q and U, adequate to unambiguously detect CMB polarization at levels predicted by current models.