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Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments like Advanced ACTPol (AdvACT) and Simons Observatory (SO) seek to uncover the physics of the early Universe, just ~10-32 seconds after its formation, and its evolution since. With just 6 parameters, the Lambda-CDM model of cosmology describes our Universe exceptionally well, but leaves some questions unanswered. The CMB can answer questions left unanswered by Lambda-CDM, including whether the early Universe underwent a period of inflation, if there are particles beyond the Standard Model, the sum of the neutrino masses, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.However, reaching the level of precision necessary to measure the signals in the CMB that can answer these questions is extremely difficult and requires unprecedented sensitivity, which presents a number of instrumental challenges. Additionally, measurements can be contaminated by polarized foregrounds such as dust and synchrotron emission. To recover the CMB signal, we must characterize and remove these polarized foregrounds with high precision, which requires multiple frequency bands and highly stringent instrument calibration. Previous experiments have never needed to calibrate to such extreme levels, but future experiments seeking to improve CMB measurements will require sub-percent level uncertainties in detector bandpass characterization. This will necessitate new calibration techniques.In this thesis, I present my work towards achieving this unprecedented level of precision in detector bandpass calibration for AdvACT, SO, and future experiments such as CMB-S4, through analyzing current measurements and using novel techniques to improve Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) bandpass calibration, including characterizing the FTS transfer function, design improvements, and improved coupling optics. I will discuss the viability of these methods for future CMB experiments. This work will improve the frequency calibration needed to remove polarized foregrounds from CMB maps, which will enable CMB measurements that will advance our understanding of the fundamental physics of the Universe.

Optimal analyses of many signals in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) require map-level extraction of individual components in the microwave sky, rather than measurements at the power spectrum level alone. To date, nearly all map-level component separation in CMB analyses has been performed exclusively using satellite data. In this paper, we implement a component separation method based on the internal linear combination (ILC) approach which we have designed to optimally account for the anisotropic noise (in the 2D Fourier domain) often found in ground-based CMB experiments. Using this method, we combine multi-frequency data from the Planck satellite and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) to construct the first wide-area, arcminute-resolution component-separated maps (covering approximately 2100 sq. deg.) of the CMB temperature anisotropy and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect sourced by the inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons off hot, ionized gas. Our ILC pipeline allows for explicit deprojection of various contaminating signals, including a modified blackbody approximation of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) spectral energy distribution. The cleaned CMB maps will be a useful resource for CMB lensing reconstruction, kinematic SZ cross-correlations, and primordial non-Gaussianity studies. The tSZ maps will be used to study the pressure profiles of galaxies, groups, and clusters through cross-correlations with halo catalogs, with dust contamination controlled via CIB deprojection. The data products described in this paper are available on LAMBDA.

The Simons Observatory (SO) will make precise temperature and polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using a set of telescopes which will cover angular scales between 1 arcminute and tens of degrees, contain over 60,000 detectors, and observe at frequencies between 27 and 270 GHz. SO will consist of a 6 m aperture telescope coupled to over 30,000 transition-edge sensor bolometers along with three 42 cm aperture refractive telescopes, coupled to an additional 30,000+ detectors, all of which will be located in the Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5190 m. The powerful combination of large and small apertures in a CMB observatory will allow us to sample a wide range of angular scales over a common survey area. SO will measure fundamental cosmological parameters of our universe, constrain primordial fluctuations, find high redshift clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel`dovich effect, constrain properties of neutrinos, and trace the density and velocity of the matter in the universe over cosmic time. The complex set of technical and science requirements for this experiment has led to innovative instrumentation solutions which we will discuss. The large aperture telescope will couple to a cryogenic receiver that is 2.4 m in diameter and nearly 3 m long, creating a number of technical challenges. Concurrently, we are designing the array of cryogenic receivers housing the 42 cm aperture telescopes. We will discuss the sensor technology SO will use and we will give an overview of the drivers for and designs of the SO telescopes and receivers, with their cold optical components and detector arrays.

We introduce MVPinn, a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) approach tailored for solving the Milne-Eddington (ME) inversion problem, specifically applied to spectropolarimetric observations from the Big Bear Solar Observatory's Near-InfraRed Imaging Spectropolarimeter (BBSO/NIRIS) at the Fe I 1.56 m lines. Traditional ME inversion methods, though widely used, are computationally intensive, sensitive to noise, and often struggle to accurately capture complex profile asymmetries resulting from gradients in magnetic field strength, orientation, and line-of-sight velocities. By embedding the ME radiative transfer equations directly into the neural network training as physics-informed constraints, our MVPinn method robustly and efficiently retrieves magnetic field parameters, significantly outperforming traditional inversion methods in accuracy, noise resilience, and the ability to handle asymmetric and weak polarization signals. After training, MVPinn infers one magnetogram in about 15 seconds, compared to tens of minutes required by traditional ME inversion on high-resolution spectropolarimetric data. Quantitative comparisons demonstrate excellent agreement with well-established magnetic field measurements from the SDO/HMI and Hinode/SOT-SP instruments, with correlation coefficients of approximately 90%. In particular, MVPINN aligns better with Hinode/SOT-SP data, indicating some saturation of HMI data at high magnetic strengths. We further analyze the physical significance of profile asymmetries and the limitations inherent in the ME model assumption. Our results illustrate the potential of physics-informed machine learning methods in high-spatial-temporal solar observations, preparing for more sophisticated, real-time magnetic field analysis essential for current and next-generation solar telescopes and space weather monitoring.

We present new arcminute-resolution maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropy from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, using data taken from 2013-2016 at 98 and 150 GHz. The maps cover more than 17,000 deg\\(^2\\), the deepest 600 deg\\(^2\\) with noise levels below 10 \\(\\)K-arcmin. We use the power spectrum derived from almost 6,000 deg\\(^2\\) of these maps to constrain cosmology. The ACT data enable a measurement of the angular scale of features in both the divergence-like polarization and the temperature anisotropy, tracing both the velocity and density at last-scattering. From these one can derive the distance to the last-scattering surface and thus infer the local expansion rate, \\(H_0\\). By combining ACT data with large-scale information from WMAP we measure \\(H_0 = 67.6 1.1\\) km/s/Mpc, at 68% confidence, in excellent agreement with the independently-measured Planck satellite estimate (from ACT alone we find \\(H_0 = 67.9 1.5\\) km/s/Mpc). The \\(\\)CDM model provides a good fit to the ACT data, and we find no evidence for deviations: both the spatial curvature, and the departure from the standard lensing signal in the spectrum, are zero to within 1\\(\\); the number of relativistic species, the primordial Helium fraction, and the running of the spectral index are consistent with \\(\\)CDM predictions to within \\(1.5 - 2.2\\). We compare ACT, WMAP, and Planck at the parameter level and find good consistency; we investigate how the constraints on the correlated spectral index and baryon density parameters readjust when adding CMB large-scale information that ACT does not measure. The DR4 products presented here will be publicly released on the NASA Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis.

We present the temperature and polarization angular power spectra of the CMB measured by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) from 5400 deg\\(^2\\) of the 2013-2016 survey, which covers \\(>\\)15000 deg\\(^2\\) at 98 and 150 GHz. For this analysis we adopt a blinding strategy to help avoid confirmation bias and, related to this, show numerous checks for systematic error done before unblinding. Using the likelihood for the cosmological analysis we constrain secondary sources of anisotropy and foreground emission, and derive a \"CMB-only\" spectrum that extends to \\(=4000\\). At large angular scales, foreground emission at 150 GHz is \\(\\)1% of TT and EE within our selected regions and consistent with that found by Planck. Using the same likelihood, we obtain the cosmological parameters for \\(\\)CDM for the ACT data alone with a prior on the optical depth of \\(=0.0650.015\\). \\(\\)CDM is a good fit. The best-fit model has a reduced \\(^2\\) of 1.07 (PTE=0.07) with \\(H_0=67.91.5\\) km/s/Mpc. We show that the lensing BB signal is consistent with \\(\\)CDM and limit the celestial EB polarization angle to \\(_P =-0.07^0.09^\\). We directly cross correlate ACT with Planck and observe generally good agreement but with some discrepancies in TE. All data on which this analysis is based will be publicly released.

The Simons Observatory (SO) is a new cosmic microwave background experiment being built on Cerro Toco in Chile, due to begin observations in the early 2020s. We describe the scientific goals of the experiment, motivate the design, and forecast its performance. SO will measure the temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in six frequency bands: 27, 39, 93, 145, 225 and 280 GHz. The initial configuration of SO will have three small-aperture 0.5-m telescopes (SATs) and one large-aperture 6-m telescope (LAT), with a total of 60,000 cryogenic bolometers. Our key science goals are to characterize the primordial perturbations, measure the number of relativistic species and the mass of neutrinos, test for deviations from a cosmological constant, improve our understanding of galaxy evolution, and constrain the duration of reionization. The SATs will target the largest angular scales observable from Chile, mapping ~10% of the sky to a white noise level of 2 \\(\\)K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, to measure the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio, \\(r\\), at a target level of \\((r)=0.003\\). The LAT will map ~40% of the sky at arcminute angular resolution to an expected white noise level of 6 \\(\\)K-arcmin in combined 93 and 145 GHz bands, overlapping with the majority of the LSST sky region and partially with DESI. With up to an order of magnitude lower polarization noise than maps from the Planck satellite, the high-resolution sky maps will constrain cosmological parameters derived from the damping tail, gravitational lensing of the microwave background, the primordial bispectrum, and the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects, and will aid in delensing the large-angle polarization signal to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The survey will also provide a legacy catalog of 16,000 galaxy clusters and more than 20,000 extragalactic sources.

The Simons Observatory (SO) is a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment sited on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in Chile that promises to provide breakthrough discoveries in fundamental physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. Supported by the Simons Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and with contributions from collaborating institutions, SO will see first light in 2021 and start a five year survey in 2022. SO has 287 collaborators from 12 countries and 53 institutions, including 85 students and 90 postdocs. The SO experiment in its currently funded form ('SO-Nominal') consists of three 0.4 m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6 m Large Aperture Telescope (LAT). Optimized for minimizing systematic errors in polarization measurements at large angular scales, the SATs will perform a deep, degree-scale survey of 10% of the sky to search for the signature of primordial gravitational waves. The LAT will survey 40% of the sky with arc-minute resolution. These observations will measure (or limit) the sum of neutrino masses, search for light relics, measure the early behavior of Dark Energy, and refine our understanding of the intergalactic medium, clusters and the role of feedback in galaxy formation. With up to ten times the sensitivity and five times the angular resolution of the Planck satellite, and roughly an order of magnitude increase in mapping speed over currently operating (\"Stage 3\") experiments, SO will measure the CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations to exquisite precision in six frequency bands from 27 to 280 GHz. SO will rapidly advance CMB science while informing the design of future observatories such as CMB-S4.