The QUaD ('QUEST at DASI', taking the QU Extragalactic Survey Telescope and installing it at the site of the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer) and BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiments, measuring aspects of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the South Pole, have been very successful. Both projects rely on Polarization Sensitive Bolometers (PSBs), a special detector technology developed at Caltech. Due to yield problems associated with the first fabrication run, the detector group was over-extended, and as a result, support for continued operation of BICEP is in doubt. The current support is for the PSBs needed to run both experiments at the same time, and is required to avoid having to divert money needed for operation of BICEP during the coming winter.
This work is funded from the Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology program of the Division of Astronomical Sciences, and from the Antarctic Aeronomy and Astrophysics program of the Office of Polar Programs, as a Small Grant for Exploratory Research. Support for the upcoming polar season is an urgent need by the definition of the SGER program. This work is part of the interagency Physics of the Universe program.
