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Dr Enzo Pascale

Overview

Dr Enzo Pascale Email:Enzo.Pascale ( at astro.cf.ac.uk )
 Telephone:029 208 75031 / 76466
 Location:N/0.45
   Webpage:Personal Page.

Research Interests

Observational Cosmology: Cosmic Microwave Background, CMB polarization, High Z Submillimetre Galaxies.

Star Formation in our Galaxy and galaxies at cosmological distances.

Diffuse Interstellar Medium .

Astronomical Instrumentation at millimetre and submillimetre waveleghts.

My work is aimed at studying the evolutionary history of the Universe from its infancy, throughout the formation of structures using sub-orbital experiments. This class of instruments allow the detection of radiation in an ambient which is similar to the one a space satellite operates in, but at a fraction of the budget.

  1. BLAST. The Ballon-borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope (BLAST), is a 2m Cassegrain telescope built to operate from a high-altitude balloon platform. Blast observes in three wavebands centered at 250, 350 and 500 microns. Having successfully completed two Long Duration Balloon flights, Blast provides the first high resolution (30") maps at these wavelengths, covering from 0.8 deg-sq up to 200 deg-sq of the sky. Blast i) measures photometric redshifts, rest-frame FIR luminosities and star formation rates of high-redshift starburst galaxies, thereby constraining the evolutionary history of those galaxies which produce the FIR/submillimeter background; ii) measures cold pre-stellar sources associated with the earliest stages of star and planet formation; iii) makes high-resolution maps of diffuse galactic emission over a wide range of galactic latitudes. Further Blast Experiment Information is available.
  2. BLAST-pol. The BLAST instrument is being refurbished, and its focal plane will be modified to provide polarization capabilities. BLAST-pol will provide the first maps in polarization at these wavelengths over a wide range of Galactic targets. BLAST-pol will study the polarization properties of the diffuse Interstellar Medium in our Galaxy; will characterize the contribution of magnetic fields embedded in Giant Molecular Clouds and Bock Globules to the process of star formation; will measure the line-of-sight distribution of temperatures in resolved Galactic targets. A Long Duration Balloon flight is currently planned for the 2009 winter from Antarctica.
  3. EBEX is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation at medium angular scales (20 < l < 1500). Measurements of the polarization of the CMB could probe an inflationary epoch that took place shortly after the big bang and significantly improve constraints on the values of several cosmological parameters. EBEX will also provide critical information about the level of polarized Galactic dust which will be necessary for all future CMB polarization experiments. By observing in the same region, EBEX and BLAST-pol provides an unique combination of frequencies which will constrain the spectral properties of polarized dust from its peak intensity to the Rayleigh-Jeans part of the spectrum. Visit EBEX: The E and B Experiment for more information.
  4. SPIDER is a balloon borne observatory designed to probe the epoch of Inflation through measurements of the CMB polarization at the largest angular scales (10 < l < 100). Large format planar arrays and wide area sky coverage enable a definitive measurement of the signature of inflationary gravitational waves in CMB. By observing the same region of the sky, Spider and Ebex complements each other with their combined angular and spectral coverage and will provide a complementary detection of the polarized CMB signal from the largest (l ~ 10) to the medium (l ~1500) angular scales. Visit Caltech Observational Cosmology Group's Spider page for more information about this ambitious new balloon-borne experiment.

Teaching

Module organiser for PX2224, Electromagnetism.

Publications

The up to date (almost complete) list of publications can be viewed at The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).

  1. Pascale, E.; Ade, P. A. R.; Bock, J. J.; Chapin, E. L.; Chung, J.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S; Griffin, M.; Gundersen, J. O.; Halpern, M.; Hargrave, P. C.; Hughes, D. H.; Klein, J.; MacTavish, C. J.; Marsden, G.; Martin, P. G.; Martin, T. G.; Mauskopf, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Olmi, L.; Patanchon, G.; Rex, M.; Scott, D.; Semisch, C.; Thomas, N.; Truch, M. D. P.; Tucker, C.; Tucker, G. S.; Viero, M. P.; Wiebe, D. V., "The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope: BLAST", arXiv:0711.3465v1 (2007)
  2. Chapin, E. L.; Ade, P. A. R.; Bock, J. J.; Brunt, C.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S.; Griffin, M.; Gundersen, J. O.; Halpern, M.; Hargrave, P. C.; Hughes, D. H.; Klein, J.; Marsden, G.; Martin, P. G.; Mauskopf, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Olmi, L.; Pascale, E.; Patanchon, G.; Rex, M.; Scott, D.; Semisch, C.; Truch, M. D. P.; Tucker, C.; Tucker, G. S.; Viero, M. P.; Wiebe, D. V., "The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) 2005: A 4 sq. deg Galactic Plane Survey in Vulpecula (l=59)", arXiv:0711.3461v1 (2007)
  3. G. Bianchini, A. Boscaleri, B. Carli, F. Mencaraglia, L. Palchetti, and E. Pascale, "Infrared Balloon Experiment: improved instrumental configuration and assessment of instrument performance", Applied Optics, 45, 1041-1051 (2006)
  4. C. J. MacTavish, P. A. R. Ade, J. J. Bock, J. R. Bond, J. Borrill, A. Boscaleri, P. Cabella, C. R. Contaldi, B. P. Crill, P. de Bernardis, G. De Gasperis, A. de Oliveira-Costa, G. De Troia, G. Di Stefano, E. Hivon, A. H. Jaffe, W. C. Jones, T. S. Kisner, A. E. Lange, A. M. Lewis, S. Masi, P. D. Mauskopf, A. Melchiorri, T. E. Montroy, P. Natoli, C. B. Netterfield, E. Pascale, F. Piacentini, D. Pogosyan, G. Polenta, S. Prunet, S. Ricciardi, G. Romeo, J. E. Ruhl, P. Santini, M. Tegmark, M. Veneziani, N. Vittorio , "Cosmological Parameters from the 2003 flight of BOOMERANG", ApJ, 647, 799 (2006)
  5. Giovanni Bianchini, Ugo Cortesi, Luca Palchetti, Enzo Pascale, "SAFIRE-A (Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere by Far-Infrared Emission - Airborne): Optimized Instrument Configuration and New Assessment of Improved Performance", Applied Optics, 43, 962-965 (2004)
  6. C.B. Netterfield, P.A.R. Ade, J.J. Bock, J.R. Bond, J. Borrill, A. Boscaleri, K. Coble, C.R. Contaldi, B.P. Crill, P. de Bernardis, P. Farese, K. Ganga, M. Giacometti, E. Hivon, V.V. Hristov, A. Iacoangeli, A.H. Jaffe, W.C. Jones, A.E. Lange, L. Martinis, S. Masi, P. Mason, P.D. Mauskopf, A. Melchiorri, T. Montroy, E. Pascale, F. Piacentini, D. Pogosyan, F. Pongetti, S. Prunet, G. Romeo, J.E. Ruhl, F. Scaramuzzi, "A measurement by BOOMERANG of multiple peaks in the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background", ApJ, 571, 604-614, (2002)
  7. P. de Bernardis, P. A. R. Ade, J. J. Bock, J. R. Bond, J. Borrill, A. Boscaleri, K. Coble, B. P. Crill, G. DeGasperis, P. Farese, P. G. Ferreira, K. Ganga, M. Giacometti, E. Hivron, V. V. Hristov, A. Iacoangeli, A. H. Jaffe, A. E. Lange, L. Martinis, S. Masi, P. Mason, P. D. Mauskopf, A. Melchiorri, F. Melchiorri, L. Miglio, T. Montroy, C. B. Netterfield, E. Pascale, F. Piacentini, D. Pogosyan, S. Prunet, S. Rao G. Romeo, J. E. Ruhl, F. Scaramuzzi, D. Sforna, N. Vittorio. "A Flat Universe from High-Resolution Maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Nature, 404, 955 (2000)
  8. S. Hanany, P. Ade, A. Balbi, J. Bock, J. Borrill, A. Boscaleri, P. de Bernardis, P. Ferreira, K. Ganga, V. Hristov, A. H. Jaffe, A. E. Lange, A. T. Lee, P. D. Mauskopf, C. B. Netterfield, S. Oh, E. Pascale, B. Rabii, P. L. Richards, G. F. Smoot, R. Stompor, C. D. Winant, J. H. P. Wu, "MAXIMA-1: a measurement of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy on angular scales of 10'-5°", ApjL, 545, L5-L9 (2000)

Biography

I was an undergraduate at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", where I graduated in 1996 under the supervision of Professor Paolo de Bernardis. With a research topic in Observational Cosmology, I discussed a thesis on the Maxima Experiment. After graduation, I assumed a Visiting Associate position at the California Institute of Technology, in the group of Professor Andrew Lange, working on the BOOMEanG experiment. In 1999 I started a research position at the National Research Council in Italy in the group of Dr. Bruno Carli. In that period I followed several new experiments in the fields of Experimental Cosmology and Atmospheric Physics including Safire/A , and Safire/B during the validation campaign of the ESA satellite ENVISAT . In 2003 I started by Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Professor Barth Netterfield, where I was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. My research project was on the construction, deployment, and data analysis of the BLAST experiment. Graduated in 2007, I assumed a Lectureship at Cardiff University.