Enabling Focal Plane Technologies and Sub-Kelvin Cooling for the PRIMA far-IR Probe

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics PRIMA is a mission concept for the next round of Probe proposals. The achievable sensitivity of the mission will be enabled by advanced detector and cryogenic cooling technologies, resulting in up to three or four orders of magnitude of improvement in sensitivity over past FIR missions. This advance in capabilities will allow the astronomical community to address a wide range of scientific questions with unprecedented observational capabilities, ranging from tracing the astrochemical signatures of planet formation (within and outside of our own Solar System), measuring the formation and buildup of galaxies, heavy elements, and interstellar dust from the first galaxies to today, and probing the co-evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes across cosmic time.

Here we describe the detector and cryogenic technologies that will enable this unprecedented improvement in observational capabilities in far-infrared astronomy.