Big Bang Blackbody Simulator

Abstract

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a remnant glow from the Big Bang, and as such it provides us with a direct view into the early universe. By mapping out the CMB we are able to view the universe as it appeared when it was only 400,000 years old. The CMB radiates as an almost perfect blackbody at a temperature of 2.7 Kelvin. It is necessary to be able to simulate the CMB as a blackbody source in order to allow us to test instrumentation intended for CMB observation. The purpose of the Big Bang Blackbody Simulator is to construct a blackbody ‘cold load’ to measure the microwave response of superconducting Transition-Edge Hot-Electron Microbolometers. These detectors will allow us to measure the faint polarization signals in the CMB that are expected to be the result of gravitational waves generated in the very first moments of the universe.