Talk:QUIET

A fact from QUIET appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 May 2008, and was viewed approximately 1,612 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that QUIET, an astronomy experiment due to start observing in 2008 at the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory, Chile, will make measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/May.

Wikipedia

Q/U: frequency or polarization?

The article currently says "QUIET stands for Q/U Imaging ExperimenT, where Q and U are two microwave bands used for measurements. While the U band was changed to the W band during the design, the acronym remains." Is this definitely correct (i.e. is there a reference for it)? Another interpretation of the name would be the Stokes parameters Q and U, which is what the experiment will observe (along with the total intensity, I assume). Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:09, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A very good point. Q and U as Stokes parameters makes more sense, especially since the Q and U bands overlap. I got the information from one of the papers available on the QUIET web site, but I might have mis-interpreted it. LouScheffer (talk) 18:40, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I re-read the original source documents, and I see no explanation, so I'm afraid I supplied my own interpretation. Everywhere else Q/U is used, it refers to the Stokes parameters. So I'll take the explanation of the acronym out. Perhaps an email to one of the PIs can confirm the Stokes interpretation. LouScheffer (talk) 19:03, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

One of the paper authors, Keith Vanderlinde [[email protected]], confirms that the Q/U stands for the Stokes parameters, not the microwave bands. LouScheffer (talk) 03:46, 29 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]