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Paper: PolKa: A Tunable Polarimeter for Submillimeter Bolometer Arrays
Volume: 343, Astronomical Polarimetry: Current Status and Future Directions
Page: 92
Authors: Siringo, G.; Kreysa, E.; Menten, K.M.; Reichertz, L.A.
Abstract: A new polarimeter has been constructed to be used with the bolometer arrays developed at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn. The new polarimeter has the unique characteristic of being tunable over a wide range of wavelengths and of producing negligible absorption. It has been used at the Heinrich Hertz Telescope to measure the linear polarization of quasars and of extended sources inside our Galaxy. We detected polarization in the quasars 3C 279 and QSO B1633+382. In 3C 279 we also detected polarization variability on a time scale of a week. We also produced maps of three extended sources: the Becklin-Neugebauer/Kleinmann-Low complex in the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC 1), a filamentary cloud in OMC 3, and the massive star-forming region IRAS 05358+3543. The polarimeter has low spurious polarization and a high modulation efficiency, and the tests at the telescope show that it is well suited to become a permanent facility.
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