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| MAXIMA (experiment) | |
|---|---|
| Name | MAXIMA |
| Full name | Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array |
| First flight | 1998 |
| Principal investigators | John M. Kovac; Brian P. Crill |
| Institution | Princeton University; University of Chicago |
| Wavelength | 150 GHz; 240 GHz |
| Type | Balloon-borne telescope |
MAXIMA (experiment) was a balloon-borne cosmology experiment designed to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. The project produced high-resolution maps that constrained theories of cosmic structure, inflationary models, and parameters of the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model such as the baryon density and the spectral index. MAXIMA operated in the late 1990s and early 2000s and complemented contemporaneous projects like BOOMERanG, COBE, and WMAP.
MAXIMA was conceived to probe angular scales between those accessed by COBE and ground-based interferometers, targeting the first acoustic peak and higher multipoles in the temperature power spectrum. The collaboration included researchers from Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, and University of Minnesota, among others. Flights launched from platforms associated with NASA balloon programs, using long-duration balloon services connected to facilities in Palestine, Texas and Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Key scientific goals aligned with predictions from Inflation (cosmology), tests of adiabatic perturbations, and constraints on parameters also measured by Planck (spacecraft) and WMAP.
The MAXIMA payload deployed a cryogenic bolometer array, optical elements, and an attitude control system adapted for stratospheric balloon operations. The focal plane used spiderweb bolometers cooled by an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator similar to technologies developed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The telescope optics were an off-axis Gregorian design derived from engineering approaches in submillimeter astronomy used by instruments at Caltech and University of Arizona. Pointing reconstruction combined star camera data with gyroscopes and sun sensors comparable to those employed on COBE and WMAP flights. Observations concentrated on low-foreground fields selected using surveys from IRAS and maps influenced by techniques from DIRBE to minimize contamination from Galactic dust and point sources cataloged by NVSS and IRAS Point Source Catalog.
MAXIMA data processing applied map-making algorithms and power-spectrum estimation pipelines paralleling methods used in analyses by BOOMERanG and later by Planck Collaboration. Time-ordered data were filtered to remove instrumental drifts and cosmic-ray hits, with calibration tied to celestial sources such as Jupiter and the Cosmic Microwave Background dipole measured by COBE DMR. The resulting angular power spectrum showed a pronounced first acoustic peak near ell ≃ 220 and evidence for subsequent peaks, supporting models from CDM cosmologies with adiabatic, nearly scale-invariant initial conditions predicted by Inflation (cosmology). Parameter estimation utilized likelihood methods similar to those advanced by teams at University of Cambridge and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, constraining the baryon density in concordance with Big Bang nucleosynthesis results and narrowing the allowed range for the scalar spectral index n_s.
MAXIMA provided independent confirmation of peak structure previously suggested by BOOMERanG and reinforced the observational basis for a flat universe as favored by Einstein field equations interpretations in Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmology. The experiment influenced theoretical work on cosmological parameter estimation and informed designs for subsequent missions like WMAP and Planck (spacecraft). MAXIMA-trained scientists advanced instrumentation and analysis techniques adopted by projects at Caltech, MIT, and University of British Columbia, and contributed to cross-validation efforts with data from DASI and CBI. Its results were disseminated through journals where authorship included researchers affiliated with institutions such as Princeton University and University of Chicago.
The MAXIMA collaboration included faculty and students from multiple universities and research centers, coordinated through principal investigators with support from laboratory groups experienced in cryogenics and detector fabrication at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and National Institute of Standards and Technology. Funding and logistical support were provided by agencies and programs such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and institutional grants from partner universities. Balloon operations and recovery were facilitated by teams associated with CSBF and NASA ballooning infrastructure.
MAXIMA’s legacy informed the development of high-resolution, polarization-sensitive instruments, influencing experiments like MAXIPOL (a polarization follow-up employing similar hardware), and next-generation ground and space observatories including Planck (spacecraft) and polarization-focused campaigns such as BICEP and POLARBEAR. Technological advances in transition-edge sensor arrays and multiplexed readout systems at institutions like NIST and Stanford University trace conceptual lineage to bolometric techniques demonstrated by MAXIMA. MAXIMA-era results continue to be cited in reviews comparing constraints from CMB temperature anisotropy surveys and polarization measurements by subsequent collaborations.
Category:Cosmic microwave background experiments Category:Balloon-borne telescopes