A potential large-scale scientific collaborative project Africa/Europe to study the infant Universe. Ricardo Génova Santos (IAC)

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1 A potential large-scale scientific collaborative project Africa/Europe to study the infant Universe Ricardo Génova Santos (IAC) AERAP investing in People, Prosperity and Peace Round table seminar, 2 April 2014

2 Potential South African / European joint project Collaborative project (Quijote) already established between the following institutions: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias Instituto de Física de Cantabria DICOM, Universidad de Cantabria Spain IDOM company University of Manchester University of Cambridge UK Possible expansion of this collaboration with the inclusion of the University of Witwatersrand and potentially other South African universities or research institutes Through the installation of telescopes/experiments in South Africa similar to the ones we are currently running in the northern hemisphere

3 Scientific context of the project Final goal of the project: the characterization of the primordial Gravitational Waves from inflation (produced s after the Big Bang) Thermal history of the Universe Requires: observing the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background to very high sensitivity, in large sky regions and in various frequencies

4 Scientific context of the project On March 17 the BICEP2 team announced the discovery of this signal! South Pole Outstanding breakthrough for Fundamental Physics (proving GUT scales at inflation) But, requires confirmation, and characterization of the signal using more sensible detectors and observations over large sky areas (ideally, full sky)

5 The Quijote collaboration Around 50 scientist and engineers in 6 institutions (Spain+UK) 30 years of experience in CMB research. Built and run CMB experiments from 1984 Tenerife IAC-Bartol JBO-IAC VSA Ample experience in CMB instrumentation, telescopes (single dish and interferometers), data reduction, data processing and data analysis Participation in other large collaborations (Planck, Euclid, COrE, SDSS3...)

6 The IAC - PI-institution Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias Canary Islands (Spain) Research institute covering different areas of Astrophysics Important technology division developing cutting-edge astronomy instrumentation Involvement in many large-scale science programs (ground-based and space missions): ELT, EST, Planck, Euclid, Corot, CTA (bidding to host the North Station),...

7 The IAC - PI-institution Runs the European Northern Observatory (ENO) ORM (La Palma) GTC m (ORM) OT (Tenerife)

8 The Quijote project Goals: To detect the inflationary B-modes of the CMB polarization To characterize polarized Galactic foregrounds at low frequency (synchrotron and AME) Telescopes and instruments: Telescope 1 and first instrument GHz) already operative and taking data, since Nov Telescope 2 and second instrument 30 GHz) will start commissioning in Nov Third instrument 40 GHz) will start in Nov All funded through Spanish agencies (6M ). Five-year ( ) grant ingenio-consolider program. Also funded a pathfinder for a large-format interferometer Operation plan: Observing site: Teide observatory (Spain), 2400 m a.s.l

9 Quijote preliminary maps Commissioning started in Nov. 2012, and scientific operations in Apr The wide-survey (northern sky) Perseus I maps (Quijote/WMAP) Haze intensity and polarization maps (Quijote/WMAP)

10 Quijote South Proposal to expand the Quijote consortium with the participation of the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) - Prof. Sergio Colafrancesco, SKA research chair - and potentially other African institutions Plan: To build new telescopes and instruments in the Karoo observatory (same place as CBASS, meerkat, SKA) Replicate one of the current telescopes and the GHz instrument Two 100-element interferometer covering the GHz frequency range

11 Quijote South Feasibility: The know-how is already in our collaboration. The design of the new telescope and lowfrequency instrument will be based in the ones that are already operative in Tenerife The interferometer will require a specific design of a correlator, which has already been prototyped in the University of Manchester Total budget: around 6 M Operations during 4 years: 1 M Scientific exploitation during 4 years: 2.5 M Hardware (telescope, instrument and two interferometers): 2.5 M Timeline: The telescope and the first instrument could be ready in 1 year Only 1 year of operations would significantly enhance the scientific achievements we pursue with our current project Allow to produce cutting-edge science only 2 years after the beginning of the project!

12 Quijote South - scientific benefits Full sky coverage: Complement our current observations in the northern sky BICEP2 detection focus in short angular scales (350 deg 2 ). Full characterization of the signal requires covering large sky regions (ideally the full sky) Would allow to get the most sensitive maps to-date of the low-frequency polarized sky. Complement to the nearby C-BASS telescope (5 GHz, lower frequency) Dramatically increase our current target sensitivity, by using interferometers with a large number of detectors Improve our current sensitivity by a factor ~10

13 Quijote South - socio-economic benefits Strong synergies with the future meerkat and SKA projects, that will survey the sky at lower frequencies We plan to build an interferometer at GHz, using similar technology and concepts Training South African scientists (MSc, PhD students, postdocs) and engineers in different aspects Observing techniques and strategies Data reduction, data processing and data analysis, and related tools Design and development of advanced radio astronomy instrumentation From the beginning, South African staff could participate in the ongoing project, and get trained in specific scientific and technical aspects of the project via extended visits to the IAC or to other institutions (Manchester, Cambridge) of the consortium Potential starting point that could allow to initiate collaborations between South Africa and the IAC, and also with the other participating institutions (Manchester, Cambridge)