Probing the Early Universe with Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Anisotropies and Bringing our Research Into New York City Classrooms

Reichborn-Kjennerud Britt, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Britt Reichborn-Kjennerud is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Columbia University. Contemporary and future experiments that measure cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropies hold the promise of providing an unprecedented understanding of the origin, composition and dynamics of the universe, as well as possibly the strongest evidence yet supporting inflation theory. To push forward the design of a cutting-edge CMB polarization experiment, Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will lead an initiative to characterize the next generation of polarization-sensitive bolometric detectors in a new dedicated testing facility at Columbia University. Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will also play a key role in the Antarctic flight campaign and data analysis of the E and B Experiment (EBEX), a leading CMB polarization instrument. EBEX is unique among its contemporaries in its combination of high-frequency coverage and sensitivity to a wide range of scales; these characteristics will allow EBEX to make unprecedented measurements of the amplitude of the galactic polarized dust foreground, which will play a critical role in the analysis of data from future CMB instruments. Additionally, EBEX will probe both of the yet-undetected CMB polarization B-mode signals that were imprinted during the first fraction of a second of the universe, and at late times due to the lensing of foreground matter. Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud will also expand an ongoing summer outreach program for New York City public high school students and teachers into a full-year program that would be replicable at other institutions. During each year of the program, one teacher and two students will join the lab during the summer to complete a hands-on research project and to learn about astrophysics and about the lab and university environments. The EBEX timeline will allow the experiment to act as an ideal platform on which the teachers and students will participate in building experimental hardware and working in scientific teams, and the participants will gain first-hand experience with an experiment as it travels from the lab, to Antarctica, and to the edge of space. Each teacher will work with Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud to produce an action plan for bringing the research experience back to the classroom through school-year activities such as analysis of science data with students, student visits to the lab, and visits by lab members to the school.