Abstract
QUIET is an experimental program to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation from the ground. Previous CMB polarization data have been used to constrain the cosmological parameters that model the history of our universe. The exciting target for current and future experiments is detecting and measuring the faint polarization signals caused by gravity waves from the inflationary epoch which occurred < 10-30 s after the Big Bang. QUIET has finished an observing season at 44 GHz (Q-Band); observing at 95 GHz (W-Band) is ongoing. The instrument incorporates several technologies and approaches novel to CMB experiments. We describe the observing strategy, optics design, detector technology, and data acquisition. These systems combine to produce a polarization sensitivity of 64 (57) μK for a 1 s exposure of the Phase I Q (W) Band array. We describe the QUIET Phase I instrument and explain how systematic errors are reduced and quantified.
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