Project Overview
The Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver (ACBAR) is a
sensitive multi-frequency reciever designed to measure slight
temperature differences in the Cosmic Microwave Background. The
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the faint afterglow of the
Big Bang which formed the universe. Most of these temperature
differences in the CMB resulted from quantum fluctuations which
grew during the rapid expansion of the very early universe while
some of them resulted from the interaction of CMB photons with
clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.
Observations of both types of CMB fluctuations can tell us about
the composition and evolution of the universe.
The ACBAR instrument is based out of
U.C. Berkeley (W.L. Holzapfel, co-PI) and Case Western
Reserve University (J. Ruhl, co-PI).
ACBAR was supported by funds from the
Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, a
National Science Foundation
Science and Technology Center.
Operational support was provided by the
United States Antarctic Program.
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