Dear colleagues,
Many thanks again to those who came to the first “CMB in Germany” workshop at MPA last week! It was a very successful meeting. We have posted presentation files to the workshop website. Just click on “Schedule” and choose dates.
After the talks, we had a productive discussion time, thanks to the discussion led by Nicola Vittorio on the European coordination and John Carlstrom on the opportunities at South Pole.
<< The most important conclusions from the discussion are the following: >>
1. The next meeting will be in Bonn! Dates TBD
2. We will write “German Roadmap document” for the CMB research
- Frank Bertoldi, Joe Mohr, and Eiichiro Komatsu will coordinate writing. We will ask you for help. Let’s define our strategy together.
<< In terms of short-term opportunities, there are three: >>
1. CCAT-p [ground-based; Chile]
2. “Pre-S4 at South Pole”, i.e., a new telescope (e.g., CCAT-p type) at South Pole [ground-based]
3. JAXA-led LiteBIRD [space]
#1 is led by Köln, Bonn, Cornell and others, and is happening. MPA and LMU are joining. Want to get involved? Talk to us!
#2: An idea emerged: To build a 6-m-class high-throuput telescope similar to CCAT-p but with less surface precision, and put it at South Pole for CMB research. This will then free-up 10-m SPT for sub-mm astrophysics (~“APEX in South Pole”). Thus, this would potentially be an attractive opportunity for both CMB and non-CMB-sub-mm astronomers.
#3: Opportunities for German institutions are available, especially for instrumentation. Now is the time to get involved at Phase A. The final selection will occur sometime between August 2018 and the end of March 2019.
*** Announcement ***
There is a meeting of the LiteBIRD-Europe in Turin on Thursday and Friday THIS WEEK, and you can participate remotely. Please register yourself for remote participation at
For above all: We welcome science ideas! Is there an exciting science you would like to do with these machines? Let’s define science topics together.
<< In terms of building communities: >>
1. It would be nice to get non-astro parties involved as well [e.g., DESY, KIT]
2. How do we approach European research networks such as ASTRONET and APPEC?
=> The “Roadmap document” we will produce should help
3. How do we make ourselves visible at the national funding agencies [DFG; BMBF]
=> CTA has been successful in doing this, both in Germany and internationally. Learn from CTA?
<< In terms of longer-term opportunities: >>
1. Participation to CMB-S4. Here, Germany can play visible roles (at relatively modest cost compared to the projected cost of S4, $412M) because Germany will have CCAT-p, which is copied by Simons Observatory (and the SO is collaborating with CCAT-p closely), and a new telescope at South Pole essentially “completes” the Large Aperture Telescope part of CMB-S4 (without detectors).
John Carlstrom noted that CMB-S4 is currently only a concept to be transformed to reference designs for the decadal process and EU partners are most welcome to contribute, where the coming year is an ideal window, before Project Team and leadership are defined.
2. Science case and support for AtLAST (25-50m class sub-mm telescope). Should be discussed in the Roadmap.
[[Other Topics]]
- We discussed another space mission concept (“CORE++”) but fear that a realisation in the foreseeable future is very uncertain.
- We discussed balloon options. Karl Menten expressed interest. Germany has no history(?) - maybe an option on the EU level?
- Is there really need for northern sky observations? Greenland may not be an attractive option but we will see the experience of Greenland Telescope (GLT) by ASIAA
Please feel free to add/correct anything. The meeting was a good start, and we will keep in touch.
Best regards,
Frank Bertoldi
Eiichiro Komatsu
Joe Mohr