The Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect (SZE) is a secondary distortion of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum produced by galaxy clusters that allows for measurements of intra-cluster gas properties. Current experiments are using large arrays of multiplexed transition-edge sensor bolometers to achieve the sensitivities required for SZE cluster surveys and targeted cluster SZE observations. This thesis describes the APEX-SZ experiment, the first instrument to produce scientific results from observations with such an array. The scientific motivation for the APEX-SZ experiment is discussed, followed by a description of the APEX-SZ experiment and frequency domain multiplexing technologies. We have developed a custom data reduction pipeline for the experiment which uses a variety of filters, both in the temporal and spatial domain to produce 1' resolution maps of the SZE at 150GHz. The results of data analysis for the Bullet cluster (lE0657-56) and Abell 2204 (A2204) are presented. Both clusters are assumed to be isothermal and in hydrostatic equilibrium, allowing a fit to an isothermal beta-model and subsequent mass fraction estimates. The maximum likelihood parameters and constant likelihood 68% confidence intervals are estimated using a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo method to sample the beta-model parameter space. We measure cluster gas mass fractions with r 2500 to be 0.140 +/- 0.035 and 0.058 +/- 0.035 for the Bullet cluster and A2204 respectively. The Bullet gas mass fraction is consistent with previous results from X-ray analysis. The gas mass fraction for A2204 does not agree well with other A2204 observations, however the large scatter in the gas mass fractions determined from previous X-ray and SZE analyses indicates that a more complex density model may be appropriate for this cluster.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.116109 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Kennedy, James, 1983- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 003164392, proquestno: AAIMR67052, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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