Poster Presentation

APol — ASTE Polarimeter

Hua-Bai Li (CUHK), Robin Lee (CUHK)

Magnetic field plays a crucial role in star formation. How does the B-field topology evolve as molecular clouds form and as clouds contract to form stars have puzzled astronomers for decades. Through polarization of the dust thermal emission, we could probe magnetic field topology at various scales. At submillimeter wavelength where dust emission peaks, atmospheric absorption of the emission is significant and crucial to the depth of observations. To observe the B-field in coreless cloud, we propose to build a polarimeter for ASTE telescope at Pampa la Bola in the Atacama desert. Our design is based on a rotating half-wave plate which works together with ASTE Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometer arrays.