Experiment

The Canadian Galactic Emission Mapper (CGEM) is a key part of the effort to probe the first moments in the history of the Universe. CGEM will be a 4 metres on-axis radio telescope that will image the polarization over the entire northern sky. It will map the 8-10 GHz range, at constant elevation, with ~ 0.5 degree angular resolution. These patterns, combined with measurements at higher frequencies, will help us search for gravitational radiation from the early Universe, which favored models of cosmology predict.

It will be located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) (near Penticton, British Columbia, Canada), a national facility for astronomy operated by the National Research Council of Canada.

The goal is to obtain a high signal-to-noise map of polarized Galactic synchrotron and spinning dust emission. The produced maps will constitute a template that could be further used in B-modes search experiments.

Collaboration

CGEM is a collaboration between The University of British Columbia, DRAO and Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center.

Funding

The CGEM experiment is being built with principal funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.