The Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI)

(Information courtesy of this page)

The Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI) is designed principally to image secondary anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background at higher angular resolution than the Very Small Array. It consists of two interferometric arrays sited at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cambridge, both operating in the frequency range 12-18 GHz.

The main goals of the project are to carry out a survey of clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (the scattering of the CMB off gas in the cluster), with follow-up observations at other wavelengths, and to do pointed observations of individual clusters. AMI will also make very high resolution observations of the primordial CMB power spectrum.

The resulting catalogue of galaxy clusters could shed light on the nature of dark energy (thought to account for about 70% of the energy density of the Universe).

Observations commenced in 2004, and a major survey of clusters of galaxies is currently underway.

The official webpage for the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager is currently quite out of date.

The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager has recently been joined by Sunyaev-Zel'dovic Array in California which is performing a similar survey, and the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica which will commence a survey in 2007.

See Also

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovic Array in California has a similar design and will perform a similar survey.