A novel double-rim forebaffle design for centimeter to sub-millimeter astrophysical observations

Abstract

Stray radiation of various origin is a major source of degradation of centimeter to sub-millimeter astronomical observations. This is particularly problematic for the detection of signals such as faint cosmic microwave background polarization B modes, or for mapping large-scale extragalactic or Galactic diffuse emission. In this paper, we propose a double-rim forebaffle design to reduce the impact of such stray radiation contamination. Using qualitative arguments and numerical simulations, we show that such a design has the potential to substantially improve the quality of future observations.