An "Ultrasonic Image" of the Embryonic Universe: CMB Polarization Tests of the Inflationary Paradigm

TL;DR

This paper discusses the BICEP experiment's efforts to detect CMB polarization signatures of inflation, presenting preliminary data and new technology to probe inflation at very high energy scales.

Contribution

It introduces the first experiment dedicated to testing inflation via CMB polarization and reports preliminary results using a novel polarization modulation technique.

Findings

Preliminary data from BICEP's first season

Use of a novel Faraday Rotation Modulator

Potential to probe inflation at GUT-scale energies

Abstract

This chapter describes how the Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background induces a specific type of CMB polarization and describes the first experiment dedicated to testing this most-promising signature of inflation. This experiment, the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) project, has recently embarked on its third observing season. We show preliminary data from the BICEP's first season obtained with a novel polarization modulation mechanism called the "Faraday Rotation Modulator". Our discussion ends with a description of exciting new technology with the potential to probe inflation down to the GUT-scale.