Characterization of filterbank performance for the SuMAC millimeter-wave spectrometer

Le résumé fourni par la source

Large-scale millimeter- and submillimeter-wave survey instruments like TolTEC are capable of identifying thousands of galaxies; however, unraveling the cosmic history of star formation will require spectroscopic follow-up to determine their redshifts. A spectrometer covering a large instantaneous bandwidth is ideal for this follow-up, and is also well-suited for line intensity mapping (LIM) surveys to measure the matter power spectrum across cosmic time. The SuperSpec-MUSCAT collaboration (SuMAC) is the joint effort to operate the SuperSpec spectrometer in the MUSCAT cryostat at the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). SuperSpec is an on-chip spectrometer developed to greatly reduce the size and thermal mass of a (sub)millimeter spectrometer. Rather than a conventional grating, SuperSpec uses lithographically patterned filters, which couple to kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). The filterbank and detectors fit on a silicon chip with an area of only a few square centimeters, allowing for many more spectroscopic pixels to lie in a focal plane. The first light of SuMAC took place at the LMT in Summer 2025, with successful observations of bright sources and LIM-style scans. Three polarization-sensitive pixels were deployed, two of which each cover the 190 – 300 GHz atmospheric window, with a moderate spectral resolution of R ∼ 200. In this paper, we present the spectral characterization of one of the filterbanks of the SuMAC instrument, using Fourier-transform spectroscopy, as well as full filter bank modeling.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.