The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager AMI

1
The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI)

• Sited at Lords Bridge, Cambridge
• Small array
• - ten 3.7-m dishes
• - 20 FoV
• - 0.2-0.9 k?
• - 700 µJy in 1 hour
• Large array
• - eight 12.8-m dishes
• - 6 FoV
• - 0.9-5.5 k?
• - 70 µJy in 1 hour
• 12-18 GHz in 8 sub-bands
• Excellent low-surface brightness sensitivity
• Construction cost 3300 k
• Running costs 540 k / year

2
AMI Science

• SZ surveys
• Detect clusters out to epoch of formation (SZ
  redshift-independent)
• Cosmological constraints on OM, s8, ?, (w)
• Complement surveys in other wavebands eg Spitzer,
  HST COSMOS, XMM
• Pointed SZ observations
• Complementary SZ observation multi-frequency -gt
  Kinetic SZ
• Confirmation of high-z clusters cluster mass
  estimate
• Cluster scaling relations and evolution
• Intra-cluster gas astrophysics
• Combine with X-ray
• Combine with weak lensing
• Better gas models for B-field from Faraday
  rotation studies
• Combine with cluster halo/relic data
• Other Science
• Kaiser-Stebbins effect from cosmic
  strings/textures
• Ostriker-Vishniac effect
• CBI excess at lgt2000

3
The Very Small Array (VSA)

• Collaboration between Cav-AP, JBO, IAC
• Sited on Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife
• Three configurations each with different
  horn-reflectors
• Measure l 150 - 2500
• 30 GHz operation
• Dedicated source subtractor baseline
• Construction cost 4400 k
• Running cost 270 k/year
• Currently fully funded to Oct 2007

4
VSA Science

• CMB power spectrum
• 3rd, 4th, 5th acoustic peaks with ?l 80
• Silk damping tail variation of fine structure
  constant?
• CBI excess at lgt2000
• SZ effect
• Low-z clusters resolved out by AMI
• Super-clusters and filaments
• Galactic plane surveys constraints on spinning
  dust
• Planck follow-up
• Ability to follow-up Planck discoveries (e.g.
  cosmic strings) at low frequency with 5
  resolution
• Can do long integrations on field of interest so
  can achieve higher temperature sensitivity than
  Planck itself