QUIJOTE scientific results - XX. Commissioning and First Results from the Thirty and Forty Gigahertz Instrument (TFGI)
Abstract
We present the commissioning and first results of the Thirty and Forty Gigahertz Instrument (TFGI), which observes the sky at 31 and 41 GHz with angular resolutions of 2 1 ′ and 1 8 ′ from the second QUIJOTE telescope at the Teide Observatory. Its primary goal is to conduct a deep cosmological survey in selected regions of the Northern sky with high-sensitivity polarization measurements. The commissioning phase covered from 2021 November to 2022 October, during which the instrument operated with a configuration of seven receivers, four at 31 GHz and three at 41 GHz. Over this period, approximately 1200 hr of data were acquired. Of these, 380 hr were dedicated to calibration sources, used to characterize the instrumental properties of TFGI, including the pointing model, beam response, gain stability, polarimetric performance, and instantaneous sensitivity. We provide a detailed characterization of these properties and describe how they are being improved for future observing runs. We use 230 hr of observations from bright Galactic regions (Cygnus, W43, W44, and W47) to further validate the instrument performance. As an illustrative example, we present the intensity and polarization spectral energy distributions of W44, finding good agreement with existing measurements. From the noise map of these observations, we measure a polarization sensitivity of ∼8.3 μ K deg −1 after an effective observing depth of 0.57 hr deg −2 . This performance, achieved considering only two detectors at 31 GHz, is already comparable to that achieved by WMAP (with almost three times the integration time per unit area, 1.61 hr deg −2 ). Extrapolating these results to the full TFGI array, with up to 29 detectors, we show that the instrument is expected to reach the target sensitivity of ∼1 μ K deg −1 at both 31 and 41 GHz over three cosmological fields covering a total area of 3600 deg 2 after an effective integration time of 5.7 yr.
Related
- QUIJOTE scientific results - XII. Characterization of the polarized synchrotron emission at the power spectrum level in the QUIJOTE-MFI wide survey
- QUIJOTE scientific results – XII. Characterization of the polarized synchrotron emission at the power spectrum level in the QUIJOTE-MFI wide survey
- Calibration electronics for the 30 and 40 GHz instrument (TFGI) of the QUIJOTE experiment
- The PLACID active coronagraphic imager instrument: commissioning status
- DragonflyPol: Wide-Field Optical Linear Polarimetry with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array (Instrument Description and Commissioning)
BibTeX
@article{fernandeztorreiro2026quijote,
title = {{QUIJOTE scientific results - XX. Commissioning and First Results from the Thirty and Forty Gigahertz Instrument (TFGI)}},
author = {M Fernandez-Torreiro and J.A Rubino-Martin and R.T Genova-Santos and G Pascual-Cisneros and A Fasano and F.J Casas and R.J Hoyland and M.W Peel and C.H Lopez-Caraballo and U Bose and R Rebolo and K Aryan and R.B Barreiro and R Cepeda-Arroita and D Herranz and E Martinez-Gonzalez and F Poidevin and R Puddu and P Vielva},
journal = {Publ.Astron.Soc.Pac.},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1088/1538-3873/ae94b0},
eprint = {2608.08579},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05734541v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - QUIJOTE scientific results - XX. Commissioning and First Results from the Thirty and Forty Gigahertz Instrument (TFGI)
AU - M Fernandez-Torreiro
AU - J.A Rubino-Martin
AU - R.T Genova-Santos
AU - G Pascual-Cisneros
AU - A Fasano
AU - F.J Casas
AU - R.J Hoyland
AU - M.W Peel
AU - C.H Lopez-Caraballo
AU - U Bose
AU - R Rebolo
AU - K Aryan
AU - R.B Barreiro
AU - R Cepeda-Arroita
AU - D Herranz
AU - E Martinez-Gonzalez
AU - F Poidevin
AU - R Puddu
AU - P Vielva
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Publ.Astron.Soc.Pac.
DO - 10.1088/1538-3873/ae94b0
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05734541v1
AB - We present the commissioning and first results of the Thirty and Forty Gigahertz Instrument (TFGI), which observes the sky at 31 and 41 GHz with angular resolutions of 2 1 ′ and 1 8 ′ from the second QUIJOTE telescope at the Teide Observatory. Its primary goal is to conduct a deep cosmological survey in selected regions of the Northern sky with high-sensitivity polarization measurements. The commissioning phase covered from 2021 November to 2022 October, during which the instrument operated with a configuration of seven receivers, four at 31 GHz and three at 41 GHz. Over this period, approximately 1200 hr of data were acquired. Of these, 380 hr were dedicated to calibration sources, used to characterize the instrumental properties of TFGI, including the pointing model, beam response, gain stability, polarimetric performance, and instantaneous sensitivity. We provide a detailed characterization of these properties and describe how they are being improved for future observing runs. We use 230 hr of observations from bright Galactic regions (Cygnus, W43, W44, and W47) to further validate the instrument performance. As an illustrative example, we present the intensity and polarization spectral energy distributions of W44, finding good agreement with existing measurements. From the noise map of these observations, we measure a polarization sensitivity of ∼8.3 μ K deg −1 after an effective observing depth of 0.57 hr deg −2 . This performance, achieved considering only two detectors at 31 GHz, is already comparable to that achieved by WMAP (with almost three times the integration time per unit area, 1.61 hr deg −2 ). Extrapolating these results to the full TFGI array, with up to 29 detectors, we show that the instrument is expected to reach the target sensitivity of ∼1 μ K deg −1 at both 31 and 41 GHz over three cosmological fields covering a total area of 3600 deg 2 after an effective integration time of 5.7 yr.
ER -