Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:20:11.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A CMB B-mode Search with Three Years of BICEP Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2013

Colin Bischoff
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics60 Garden St. MS 42, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The search for B-mode, or curl-type, polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background is the most promising technique to constrain or detect primordial gravitational waves predicted by the theory of inflation. The Bicep telescope, which observed from the South Pole for three years from 2006 through 2008, is the first experiment specifically designed to target this signal. We review the observational motivations for inflation, the advantages of B-mode observations as a technique for detecting the gravitational wave background, and the design features of Bicep that optimize it for this search. The final analysis of all three seasons of Bicep data is in progress, representing a 50% increase in integration time compared to the result from Chiang et al. (2010). A preview of the three year result includes E-mode and B-mode maps, as well as the projected constraint on r, the tensor-to-scalar ratio.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

References

Aikin, R., in preparationGoogle Scholar
Baumann, D.et al. 2009, AIP-CP, 1141, 10Google Scholar
Bischoff, C.et al. 2008, ApJ, 684, 771Google Scholar
Brown, M. L.et al. 2009, ApJ, 705, 978Google Scholar
Chiang, H. C.et al. 2010, ApJ, 711, 1123Google Scholar
de Bernardis, P.et al. 2000, Nature, 404, 955Google Scholar
Guth, Alan H. 1981, Phys. Rev. D, 23, 347Google Scholar
Hu, W. & White, M. 1997, Phys. Rev. D, 56, 596Google Scholar
Jarosik, N.et al. 2011, ApJS, 192, 14Google Scholar
Kamionkowski, M., Kosowsky, A., & Stebbins, A. 1997, Phys. Rev. D, 55, 7368Google Scholar
Keisler, R.et al. 2011, ApJ, 743, 28Google Scholar
Kovac, J. M.et al. 2002, Nature, 420, 772Google Scholar
Larson, D.et al. 2011, ApJS, 192, 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leitch, E. M.et al. 2005, ApJ, 624, 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montroy, T. E.et al. 2006, ApJ, 647, 813Google Scholar
Penzias, A. A. & Wilson, R. W. 1964, ApJ, 142, 419CrossRefGoogle Scholar
QUIET Collaboration 2011, ApJ, 741, 111Google Scholar
QUIET Collaboration 2012, arXiv:1207.5034Google Scholar
Sievers, J. L.et al. 2007, ApJ, 660, 976Google Scholar
Takahashi, Y. D.et al. 2010, ApJ, 711, 1141CrossRefGoogle Scholar