Precision of future experiments measuring primordial tensor fluctuation

TL;DR

This paper forecasts the precision of future experiments like Planck, Spider, and POLARBEAR in measuring the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio and tensor spectral index, considering current noise and foreground challenges.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative forecast of the measurement accuracy for $r$ and $n_{t}$ in upcoming CMB polarization experiments, accounting for experimental noise and foregrounds.

Findings

Signal-to-noise ratio for $r$-$n_{t}$ measurements varies with true $r$ value.

Future experiments can potentially measure the shape of CMB B-mode polarization.

Forecasts depend on experimental noise levels and foreground contamination.

Abstract

Recently the second phase of Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) claimed a detection of the tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$) of primordial fluctuation at $5\sigma$ confidence level. If it is true, this large and measurable amplitude ($r \simeq 0.2$) of B-mode polarization indicates that it is possible to measure the shape of CMB B-mode polarization with future experiments. We forecast the precision of $r$ and the tensor spectral index $n_{\rm t}$ measurements, with $n_{\rm t}$ as a free parameter, from a {\it Planck}-like experiment, and from Spider and POLARBEAR given the current understanding of their experimental noise and foreground contamination. We quantitatively determine the signal-to-noise of the measurement in $r$-$n_{\rm t}$ parameter space for the three experiments. The forecasted signal-to-noise ratio of the B-mode polarization somewhat depends on $n_{\rm t}$, but strongly depends on the true value of $r$.