Constraining Inflation with the BICEP/Keck CMB Polarization Experiments
Abstract
The BICEP/ (BK) series of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments has, over the past decade and a half, produced a series of field-leading constraints on cosmic inflation via measurements of the "B-mode" polarization of the CMB. Primordial B modes are directly tied to the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves (PGW), their strength parameterized by the tensor-to-scalar ratio, , and thus the energy scale of inflation. Having set the most sensitive constraints to-date on , ( C.L.) using data through the 2018 observing season ("BK18"), the BICEP/ program has continued to improve its dataset in the years since. We give a brief overview of the BK program and the "BK18" result before discussing the program's ongoing efforts, including the deployment and performance of the 's successor instrument, BICEP Array, improvements to data processing and internal consistency testing, new techniques such as delensing, and how those will ultimately serve to allow BK reach using data through the 2027 observing season.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2405.19469,
title = {Constraining Inflation with the BICEP/Keck CMB Polarization Experiments},
author = {Keck Collaboration and P. A. R. Ade and Z. Ahmed and M. Amiri and D. Barkats and R. Basu Thakur and C. A. Bischoff and D. Beck and J. J. Bock and H. Boenish and V. Buza and J. R. Cheshire and J. Connors and J. Cornelison and M. Crumrine and A. Cukierman and E. V. Denison and M. Dierickx and L. Duband and M. Eiben and B. Elwood and S. Fatigoni and J. P. Filippini and M. Gao and C. Giannakopoulos and N. Goeckner-Wald and D. C. Goldfinger and J. Grayson and P. Grimes and G. Hall and G. Halal and M. Halpern and E. Hand and S. Harrison and S. Henderson and J. Hubmayr and H. Hui and K. D. Irwin and J. Kang and K. S. Karkare and S. Kefeli and J. M. Kovac and C L. Kuo and K. Lau and A. Lennox and T. Liu and K. G. Megerian and L. Minutolo and L. Moncelsi and Y. Nakato and T. Namikawa and H. T. Nguyen and R. O'Brient and S. Palladino and M. Petroff and A. Polish and N. Precup and T. Prouve and C. Pryke and B. Racine and C. D. Reintsema and T. Romand and M. Salatino and A. Schillaci and B. L. Schmitt and B. Singari and A. Soliman and T. St. Germaine and A. Steiger and B. Steinbach and R. V. Sudiwala and K. L. Thompson and C. Tucker and A. D. Turner and C. Vergès and A. G. Vieregg and A. Wandui and A. C. Weber and J. Willmert and W. L. K. Wu and H. Yang and K. W. Yoon and E. Young and C. Yu and L. Zeng and C. Zhang and S. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.19469},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
9 pages, 5 figures. Contribution to the 2024 Cosmology session of the 58th Rencontres de Moriond