The Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North is an optical polarimeter designed for the needs of the Polar-Areas Stellar Imaging in Polarimetry High-Accuracy Experiment survey. It will be installed on the 1.3-m telescope at the Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece. After commissioning, it will measure the 30×30 arcmin2 polarization of millions of stars at high galactic latitude, aiming to measure hundreds of stars per square degree. The astronomical filter used in the instrument is a modified, polarimetrically neutral broadband Sloan Digital Sky Survey-r. This instrument will be a pioneering one due to its large field of view (FoV) of and high-accuracy polarimetry measurements. The accuracy and sensitivity of the instrument in polarization fraction will be at the 0.1% and 0.05% levels, respectively. Four separate 4k×4k charge-coupled devices will be used as the instrument detectors, each imaging one of the 0-, 45-, 90-, and 135-deg polarized FoV separately, therefore making the instrument a four-channel, one-shot polarimeter. Here, we present the overall optical design of the instrument, emphasizing the aspects of the instrument that are different from Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter South. We also present a customized design of filters appropriate for polarimetry along with details on the management of the instrument size and its polarimetric calibration.
LiteBIRD, the next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment, aims for a launch in Japan’s fiscal year 2032, marking a major advancement in the exploration of primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. Orbiting the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2, this JAXA-led strategic L-class mission will conduct a comprehensive mapping of the CMB polarization across the entire sky. During its 3-year mission, LiteBIRD will employ three telescopes within 15 unique frequency bands (ranging from 34 through 448 GHz), targeting a sensitivity of 2.2 μK-arcmin and a resolution of 0.5° at 100 GHz. Its primary goal is to measure the tensor-toscalar ratio r with an uncertainty δr = 0.001, including systematic errors and margin. If r ≥ 0.01, LiteBIRD expects to achieve a > 5σ detection in the ℓ = 2–10 and ℓ = 11–200 ranges separately, providing crucial insight into the early Universe. We describe LiteBIRD’s scientific objectives, the application of systems engineering to mission requirements, the anticipated scientific impact, and the operations and scanning strategies vital to minimizing systematic effects. We will also highlight LiteBIRD’s synergies with concurrent CMB projects.
KEYWORDS: Databases, Calibration, Polarizers, Observatories, CCD cameras, Control software, Web services, Control systems, Robotics, Internet imaging, Instrumentation control
The Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeters (WALOPs) are two instruments - WALOPNorth and WALOPSouth - that will be installed at the Skinakas and South African Astronomical Observatories respectively. Their goal is to work towards a polarimetric map of the Galaxy, for the needs of the PASIPHAE collaboration. The WALOP instruments, to be able to operate smoothly, require custom-made software to fit their (and the survey’s) specifications. We will present said software’s specifications and the methods and technologies used to meet these requirements.
The Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeter (WALOP)-South instrument is an upcoming wide-field and high accuracy optical polarimeter to be used as a survey instrument for carrying out the Polar-Areas Stellar Imaging in Polarization High-Accuracy Experiment program. Designed to operate as a one-shot four-channel and four-camera imaging polarimeter, it will have a field of view of 35 × 35 arcminutes and will measure the Stokes parameters I, q, and u in a single exposure in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-r broadband filter. The design goal for the instrument is to achieve an overall polarimetric measurement accuracy of 0.1% over the entire field of view. We present here the complete polarimetric modeling of the instrument, characterizing the amount and sources of instrumental polarization. To accurately retrieve the real Stokes parameters of a source from the measured values, we have developed a calibration method for the instrument. Using this calibration method and simulated data, we demonstrate how to correct for instrumental polarization and obtain 0.1% accuracy in degree of polarization, p. In addition, we tested and validated the calibration method by implementing it on a table-top WALOP like test-bed polarimeter in the laboratory.
Two unique wide-field and high-accuracy polarimeters named WALOP (Wide-Area Linear Optical Polarimeter)- North and WALOP-South are currently under development at the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), India, to create a large area optical polarization map of the sky for the upcoming PASIPHAE sky survey. These instruments are designed to achieve a linear polarimetric measurement accuracy of 0.1% across a field of view (FoV) of 30×30 arcminutes. The WALOP-South instrument will be installed first on a 1 m telescope at the Sutherland Observatory, where the temperatures during the night can vary between 10 to -5°C. These temperature variations and the instrument’s pointing to various non-zenithal positions in the sky can introduce stress birefringence in the lenses, leading to time-varying instrumental polarization. This work estimates stress-induced birefringence due to thermal, and gravity stresses on WALOP-South lenses. Using the optomechanical model of the WALOP-South, we carried out Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations in SolidWorks software to estimate the stresses for various scenarios of temperature, telescope pointing airmass, and lens mount material (aluminum and titanium). Further, we use the stress tensor analysis to estimate the principal stresses and their directions and consequent birefringence and retardance introduced in the lenses. The stressinduced birefringence will change the optical path length for orthogonal polarization states of the beam passing through the lenses and introduce phase retardation. Overall, with the lens mount design of the instrument, we find that the retardation and consequent instrumental polarization will be within the instrumental accuracy requirements. Additionally, the stress birefringence is found to be higher for aluminum compared to titanium mounts. We further incorporated this retardance in the instrument Mueller matrix estimation to understand its effects on the polarization measurements.
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