Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET)

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QUIET was a pathfinder Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) B-mode polarization experiment (left figure) located in the Atacama desert in Chile, designed to demonstrate the applicability of Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs; right figure) for deep CMB polarization observations. Observations were made between 2008 and 2010 at two different frequencies, 43 and 95 GHz, each covering a total of ~2400 square degrees divided over four low-foreground and two Galactic fields.


Science highlights from these measurements include:

  • The strongest constraints on B-mode polarization derived from observations below the foreground frequency minimum at ~70 GHz (QUIET 2011)
  • A successful demonstration of residual instrumental systematics below r = 0.01 (QUIET 2012a, 2012b)
  • Constraints on polarized extragalactic radio sources at 43 and 95 GHz (QUIET 2015a)
  • Deep Galactic plane maps at 43 and 95 GHz, with corresponding constraints on the synchrotron spectral index (QUIET 2015b)

A service of the HEASARC and of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC
Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
HEASARC Director: Dr. Andrew F. Ptak
LAMBDA Director: Dr. Thomas M. Essinger-Hileman
NASA Official: Dr. Thomas M. Essinger-Hileman
Web Curator: Mr. Michael R. Greason