The BLAST Observatory: A Sensitivity Study for Far-IR Balloon-borne Polarimeters

Abstract

Sensitive wide-field observations of polarized thermal emission from interstellar dust grains will allow astronomers to address key outstanding questions about the life cycle of matter and energy driving the formation of stars and the evolution of galaxies. Stratospheric balloon-borne telescopes can map this polarized emission at far-infrared wavelengths near the peak of the dust thermal spectrum - wavelengths that are inaccessible from the ground. In this paper we address the sensitivity achievable by a Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) polarimetry mission, using as an example the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) Observatory. By launching from Wanaka, New Zealand, BLAST Observatory can obtain a 30-day flight with excellent sky coverage - overcoming limitations of past experiments that suffered from short flight duration and/or launch sites with poor coverage of nearby star-forming regions. This proposed polarimetry mission will map large regions of the sky at sub-arcminute resolution, with simultaneous observations at 175, 250, and 350 $\mu m$, using a total of 8274 microwave kinetic inductance detectors. Here, we describe the scientific motivation for the BLAST Observatory, the proposed implementation, and the forecasting methods used to predict its sensitivity. We also compare our forecasted experiment sensitivity with other facilities.

Published in PASP

References in corpus (27)

• Planck 2018 results. XI. Polarized dust foregrounds
• Over half of the far-infrared background light comes from galaxies at z >= 1.2
• Polarized Far-Infrared and Submillimeter Emission from Interstellar Dust
• The Astrodust+PAH Model: A Unified Description of the Extinction, Emission, and Polarization from Dust in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium
• The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope: BLAST
• Observational Constraints on the Physical Properties of Interstellar Dust in the Post-Planck Era
• Balloon-Borne Submillimeter Polarimetry of the Vela C Molecular Cloud: Systematic Dependence of Polarization Fraction on Column Density and Local Polarization-Angle Dispersion
• On the relation between the column density structures and the magnetic field orientation in the Vela C molecular complex
• CCAT-prime Collaboration: Science Goals and Forecasts with Prime-Cam on the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope
• Dust models compatible with Planck intensity and polarization data in translucent lines of sight
• Out-Of-Focus Holography at the Green Bank Telescope
• Physical Processes in Star Formation
• Relative Alignment Between the Magnetic Field and Molecular Gas Structure in the Vela C Giant Molecular Cloud using Low and High Density Tracers
• Photon-noise limited sensitivity in titanium nitride kinetic inductance detectors
• Submillimeter Polarization Spectrum in the Vela C Molecular Cloud
• Millimeter-Wave Polarimeters Using Kinetic Inductance Detectors for TolTEC and Beyond
• First Observation of the Submillimeter Polarization Spectrum in a Translucent Molecular Cloud
• Optical Demonstration of THz, Dual-Polarization Sensitive Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors
• Submillimeter Polarization Spectrum of the Carina Nebula
• Instrumental performance and results from testing of the BLAST-TNG receiver, submillimeter optics, and MKID arrays
• Comparing submillimeter polarized emission with near-infrared polarization of background stars for the Vela C molecular cloud
• The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry-BLASTPol: Performance and results from the 2012 Antarctic flight
• Preflight Characterization of the BLAST-TNG Receiver and Detector Arrays
• Design and Characterization of a Balloon-Borne Diffraction-Limited Submillimeter Telescope Platform for BLAST-TNG
• Data downloaded via parachute from a NASA super-pressure balloon
• Characterization, deployment, and in-flight performance of the BLAST-TNG cryogenic receiver
• In-flight performance of the BLAST-TNG telescope platform

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Full-sky Models of Galactic Microwave Emission and Polarization at Sub-arcminute Scales for the Python Sky Model