Optical systems for future cosmic microwave background experiments

It is widely believed that very shortly after the Big Bang, the universe underwent a period of very rapid expansion, called inflation. Cardiff University has leading roles in the development of new international experiments to observe the residual radiation from the Big Bang, using precision polarimetric observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to search for so-called "B-modes", widely regarded as a "smoking gun" of inflation.

Two major projects are the ground-based Simons Observatory, and the future satellite mission, LiteBIRD. The student will become a member of the international teams working on both projects.

The PhD project will involve the development of new refractive optical systems that will meet the highly demanding requirements of these experiments, and other future instrument concepts.