The Atacama Cosmology Telescope

Abstract

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) project is described. This multi-institution collaboration aims to produce arcminute-resolution and micro-Kelvin sensitivity maps of the microwave background temperature over 200 square degrees of the sky in three frequency bands. We give a brief overview of the scientific motivations for such a map, followed by a design outline of our six-meter custom telescope, an overview of our proposed bolometer array detector technology, and site considerations and scan strategy. We also describe associated optical and X-ray galaxy cluster surveys.