Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 23, 2007
Sky Polarisation at Far-Infrared to Radio Wavelengths: The Galactic Screen before the Cosmic Microwave Background
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Page(s) | 189 - 203 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas:2007012 | |
Published online | 08 January 2007 |
M.-A. Miville-Deschênes and F. Boulanger (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 23 (2007) 189-203
PILOT: Measuring polarization in the Interstellar Medium
1
Centre d'Étude Spatiale des Rayonnements, 9 Av. du Colonel Roche, BP. 4346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
2
Department of Physics and Astrophysics, PO Box 913, Cardiff University, 5 the Parade, Cardiff, UK
3
Universita degli studi di Roma “La Spienza", Dipartimento di Fisica, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italia
4
Centre National des Études Spatiales, DCT/BL/NB, 18 Av. E. Belin, 31401 Toulouse, France
5
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Bât. 121, Université Paris XI, Orsay, France
6
CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Future cosmology space missions will concentrate on measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which potentially carries invaluable information about the earliest phases of the evolution of our universe. Such ambitious projects will ultimately be limited by the sensitivity of the instrument and by the accuracy at which polarized foreground emission from our own Galaxy can be subtracted out. We present the PILOT balloon project which will aim at characterizing one of these foreground sources, the polarization of the dust continuum emission in the diffuse interstellar medium. The PILOT experiment will also constitute a test-bed for using multiplexed bolometer arrays for polarization measurements.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2007