Atacama Cosmology Telescope

Atacama Cosmology Telescope
	The Atacama Cosmology Telescope, with Cerro Toco in the background
Alternative names	ACTpol
Part of	Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
Location(s)	Atacama Desert
Coordinates	22°57′31″S 67°47′15″W / 22.9586°S 67.7875°W
Wavelength	28, 41, 90, 150, 220 GHz (1.07, 0.73, 0.33, 0.20, 0.14 cm)
First light	22 October 2007
Telescope style	cosmic microwave background experiment; radio telescope
Diameter	6 meter
Website	act.princeton.edu
	Location of Atacama Cosmology Telescope
	Related media on Commons
	[edit on Wikidata]

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) was a cosmological millimeter-wave telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile.^[1] ACT made high-sensitivity, arcminute resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in order to study the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the relic radiation left by the Big Bang process. Located 40 km from San Pedro de Atacama, at an altitude of 5,190 metres (17,030 ft), it was one of the highest ground-based telescopes in the world.^[a]

Cosmic microwave background experiments like ACT, the South Pole Telescope, the WMAP satellite, and the Planck satellite have provided foundational evidence for the standard Lambda-CDM model of cosmology. ACT first detected seven acoustic peaks in the power spectrum of the CMB, discovered the most extreme galaxy cluster and made the first statistical detection of the motions of clusters of galaxies via the pairwise kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect.^[3]

ACT was buit in 2007 and saw first light on October 2007 with its first receiver, the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera (MBAC). ACT has had two major receiver upgrades which enabled polarization sensitive observations: ACTPol^[4] (2013-2016) and Advanced ACT^[5] (2017-2022). ACT observations ended in mid-2022. ACT is funded by the US National Science Foundation.

^ Fowler, J. W.; Niemack, M. D.; Dicker, S. R.; Aboobaker, A. M.; Ade, P. A. R.; Battistelli, E. S.; Devlin, M. J.; Fisher, R. P.; Halpern, M.; Hargrave, P. C.; Hincks, A. D. (10 June 2007). "Optical design of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Millimeter Bolometric Array Camera". Applied Optics. 46 (17): 3444–3454. arXiv:astro-ph/0701020. Bibcode:2007ApOpt..46.3444F. doi:10.1364/AO.46.003444. ISSN 0003-6935. PMID 17514303. S2CID 10833374.
^ Marrone; et al. (2005). "Observations in the 1.3 and 1.5 THz Atmospheric Windows with the Receiver Lab Telescope". Sixteenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology: 64. arXiv:astro-ph/0505273. Bibcode:2005stt..conf...64M.
^ Hand, Nick; Addison, Graeme E.; Aubourg, Eric; Battaglia, Nick; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Bond, J. Richard; Brewington, Howard; Brinkmann, Jon; Brown, Benjamin R.; Das, Sudeep; Dawson, Kyle S.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dunkley, Joanna; Dunner, Rolando (23 July 2012). "Evidence of Galaxy Cluster Motions with the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect". Physical Review Letters. 109 (4): 041101. arXiv:1203.4219. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.041101. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 23006072.
^ Niemack, M. D.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aguirre, J.; Barrientos, F.; Beall, J. A.; Bond, J. R.; Britton, J.; Cho, H. M.; Das, S.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S. (16 July 2010). "ACTPol: a polarization-sensitive receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope". In Holland, Wayne S.; Zmuidzinas, Jonas (eds.). Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V. Vol. 7741. San Diego, California, USA. pp. 537–557. arXiv:1006.5049. doi:10.1117/12.857464. S2CID 27705474.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Henderson, S. W.; Allison, R.; Austermann, J.; Baildon, T.; Battaglia, N.; Beall, J. A.; Becker, D.; De Bernardis, F.; Bond, J. R.; Calabrese, E.; Choi, S. K. (1 August 2016). "Advanced ACTPol Cryogenic Detector Arrays and Readout". Journal of Low Temperature Physics. 184 (3): 772–779. arXiv:1510.02809. Bibcode:2016JLTP..184..772H. doi:10.1007/s10909-016-1575-z. ISSN 1573-7357. S2CID 53411729.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[1] Fowler, J. W.; Niemack, M. D.; Dicker, S. R.; Aboobaker, A. M.; Ade, P. A. R.; Battistelli, E. S.; Devlin, M. J.; Fisher, R. P.; Halpern, M.; Hargrave, P. C.; Hincks, A. D. (10 June 2007). "Optical design of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Millimeter Bolometric Array Camera". Applied Optics. 46 (17): 3444–3454. arXiv:astro-ph/0701020. Bibcode:2007ApOpt..46.3444F. doi:10.1364/AO.46.003444. ISSN 0003-6935. PMID 17514303. S2CID 10833374.

[2] Marrone; et al. (2005). "Observations in the 1.3 and 1.5 THz Atmospheric Windows with the Receiver Lab Telescope". Sixteenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology: 64. arXiv:astro-ph/0505273. Bibcode:2005stt..conf...64M.

[4] Hand, Nick; Addison, Graeme E.; Aubourg, Eric; Battaglia, Nick; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Bond, J. Richard; Brewington, Howard; Brinkmann, Jon; Brown, Benjamin R.; Das, Sudeep; Dawson, Kyle S.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dunkley, Joanna; Dunner, Rolando (23 July 2012). "Evidence of Galaxy Cluster Motions with the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect". Physical Review Letters. 109 (4): 041101. arXiv:1203.4219. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.041101. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 23006072.

[5] Niemack, M. D.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aguirre, J.; Barrientos, F.; Beall, J. A.; Bond, J. R.; Britton, J.; Cho, H. M.; Das, S.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S. (16 July 2010). "ACTPol: a polarization-sensitive receiver for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope". In Holland, Wayne S.; Zmuidzinas, Jonas (eds.). Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V. Vol. 7741. San Diego, California, USA. pp. 537–557. arXiv:1006.5049. doi:10.1117/12.857464. S2CID 27705474.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[6] Henderson, S. W.; Allison, R.; Austermann, J.; Baildon, T.; Battaglia, N.; Beall, J. A.; Becker, D.; De Bernardis, F.; Bond, J. R.; Calabrese, E.; Choi, S. K. (1 August 2016). "Advanced ACTPol Cryogenic Detector Arrays and Readout". Journal of Low Temperature Physics. 184 (3): 772–779. arXiv:1510.02809. Bibcode:2016JLTP..184..772H. doi:10.1007/s10909-016-1575-z. ISSN 1573-7357. S2CID 53411729.

[1]

[a]

[3]

[4]

[5]