GroundBIRD is a ground-based experiment for the precise observation of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). To achieve high sensitivity at large angular scale, we adopt three features in this experiment: fast rotation scanning, microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) and cold optics. The rotation scanning strategy has the advantage to suppress 1/ f noise. It also provides a large sky coverage of 40%, which corresponds to the large angular scales of l ∼ 6. This allows us to constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio by using low l B-mode spectrum. The focal plane consists of 7 MKID arrays for two target frequencies, 145 GHz and 220 GHz band. There are 161 pixels in total, of which 138 are for 144 GHz and 23 are for 220 GHz. This array is currently under development and the prototype will soon be evaluated in telescope. The GroundBIRD telescope will observe the CMB at the Teide observatory. The telescope was moved from Japan to Tenerife and is now under test. We present the status and plan of the GroundBIRD experiment.

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is an afterglow from the Big Bang. CMB contains rich information about the early stage of the universe. In particular, odd-parity patterns (B-mode) in the CMB polarization on a large angular scale would provide an evidence of the cosmic inflation. The aim of the GroundBIRD experiment is to observe the B-mode on large angular scales from the ground. One of the most novel characteristics of the telescope uses for this experiment is its rapid rotational scanning technique. In addition, the telescope uses cold optics and microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). We have developed a telescope mount with a three-axis rotation mechanism (azimuth, elevation, and boresight) and measured the vibration at the focal plane stage a 20 RPM scan rotation rate. We also performed focal plane detector tests on this mount. The tests confirmed the expected response from the geomagnetism associated with the mount rotation. We have also developed a design for the magnetic shields and a detector array on a 3-in wafer. The preparations to begin the observations at the Teide Observatory in the Canary Islands in 2018 are proceeding smoothly.

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Superconducting detectors are a modern technology applied in various fields. The microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) is one of cutting-edge superconducting detector. It is based on the principle of a superconducting resonator circuit. A radiation entering the MKID breaks the Cooper pairs in the superconducting resonator, and the intensity of the radiation is detected as a variation of the resonant condition. Therefore, calibration of the detector responsivity, i.e., the variation of the resonant phase with respect to the number of Cooper-pair breaks (quasiparticles), is important. We propose a method for responsivity calibration. Microwaves used for the detector readout locally raise the temperature in each resonator, which increases the number of quasiparticles. Since the magnitude of the temperature rise depends on the power of readout microwaves, the number of quasiparticles also depends on the power of microwaves. By changing the power of the readout microwaves, we simultaneously measure the phase difference and lifetime of quasiparticles. We calculate the number of quasiparticles from the measured lifetime and by using a theoretical formula. This measurement yields a relation between the phase response as a function of the number of quasiparticles. We demonstrate this responsivity calibration using the MKID maintained at 285 mK. We also confirm consistency between the results obtained using this method and conventional calibration methods in terms of the accuracy.