CaltechAUTHORS
Published July 10, 2022 | Version Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

COMAP Early Science. II. Pathfinder Instrument

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
  • 3. ROR icon University of Toronto
  • 4. ROR icon University of Miami
  • 5. ROR icon University of Manchester
  • 6. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 7. ROR icon University of Oslo
  • 8. ROR icon University of California, Berkeley
  • 9. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 10. ROR icon University of Concepción
  • 11. ROR icon New York University
  • 12. ROR icon Stanford University
  • 13. ROR icon University of Geneva

Abstract

Line intensity mapping (LIM) is a new technique for tracing the global properties of galaxies over cosmic time. Detection of the very faint signals from redshifted carbon monoxide (CO), a tracer of star formation, pushes the limits of what is feasible with a total-power instrument. The CO Mapping Project Pathfinder is a first-generation instrument aiming to prove the concept and develop the technology for future experiments, as well as delivering early science products. With 19 receiver channels in a hexagonal focal plane arrangement on a 10.4 m antenna and an instantaneous 26–34 GHz frequency range with 2 MHz resolution, it is ideally suited to measuring CO (J = 1–0) from z ∼ 3. In this paper we discuss strategies for designing and building the Pathfinder and the challenges that were encountered. The design of the instrument prioritized LIM requirements over those of ancillary science. After a couple of years of operation, the instrument is well understood, and the first year of data is already yielding useful science results. Experience with this Pathfinder will guide the design of the next generations of experiments.

Additional Information

© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 2021 November 24; accepted 2021 December 18; published 2022 July 13. Focus on Early Science Results from the CO Mapping Array Project (COMAP). This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. 1517108, 1517288, 1517598, 1518282, and 1910999 and by the Keck Institute for Space Studies under "The First Billion Years: A Technical Development Program for Spectral Line Observations." Parts of the work were carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and funded through the internal Research and Technology Development program. D.T.C. is supported by a CITA/Dunlap Institute postdoctoral fellowship. The Dunlap Institute is funded through an endowment established by the David Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. C.D. and S.H. acknowledge support from an STFC Consolidated grant (ST/P000649/1). J.B., H.K.E., M.K.F., H.T.I., J.G.S.L., M.R., N.-O.S., D.W., and I.K.W. acknowledge support from the Research Council of Norway through grants 251328 and 274990 and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement No. 819478, Cosmoglobe). J.G. acknowledges support from the University of Miami and is grateful to Hugh Medrano for assistance with cryostat design. L.K. was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 885990. J. Kim is supported by a Robert A. Millikan Fellowship from Caltech. At JPL, we are grateful to Mary Soria for assembly work on the amplifier modules and to Jose Velasco, Ezra Long, and Jim Bowen for the use of their amplifier test facilities. H.P. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation through Ambizione grant PZ00P2_179934. P.C.B. is supported by the James Arthur Postdoctoral Fellowship. R.R. acknowledges support from ANID-FONDECYT grant 1181620. M.V. acknowledges support from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. We thank Isu Ravi for her contributions to the warm electronics and antenna drive characterization. We would also like to acknowledge the important contributions of Russell Keeney, Michael Virgin, and Andres Rizo for constructing and installing major mechanical parts of the instrument. We gratefully acknowledge hardware donations from Xilinx within the Xilinx University Program. Finally, we thank the anonymous referee for the careful reading of the manuscript.

Attached Files

Published - Lamb_2022_ApJ_933_183.pdf

Submitted - 2111.05928.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
113987
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20220322-205032421

Related works

Describes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.05928 (URL)

Funding

NSF
AST-1517108
NSF
AST-1517288
NSF
AST-1517598
NSF
AST-1518282
NSF
AST-1910999
Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS)
NASA/JPL/Caltech
JPL Research and Technology Development Fund
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Toronto
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
ST/P000649/1
Research Council of Norway
251328
Research Council of Norway
274990
European Research Council (ERC)
819478
University of Miami
Marie Curie Fellowship
885990
Robert A. Millikan Fellowship
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
PZ00P2_179934
American Astronomical Society
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT)
1181620
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

Dates

Created
2022-03-23
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-08-01
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Keck Institute for Space Studies, Owens Valley Radio Observatory