Constraining fundamental physics with the cosmic microwave background

TL;DR

This paper reviews how cosmic microwave background observations inform our understanding of early-universe physics, highlighting recent insights and future prospects with advanced polarization-sensitive instruments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of current knowledge and discusses future potential of CMB measurements to constrain fundamental physics.

Findings

CMB anisotropies reveal initial fluctuation mechanisms

Polarization data enhances understanding of early universe

Upcoming instruments will improve constraints on cosmological models

Abstract

The temperature anisotropies and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation provide a window back to the physics of the early universe. They encode the nature of the initial fluctuations and so can reveal much about the physical mechanism that led to their generation. In this contribution we review what we have learnt so far about early-universe physics from CMB observations, and what we hope to learn with a new generation of high-sensitivity, polarization-capable instruments.