Related papers: Did BICEP2 see vector modes? First B-mode constrai…
In low-energy effective string theory and modified gravity theories, the propagating speed $c_T$ of primordial gravitational waves may deviate from unity. We find that the step-like variation of $c_T$ during slow-roll inflation may result…
The B-mode detection of Cosmic Microwave Background polarization will require new technological developments, able to get sensitivities at least 2 orders of magnitude better than for the E-mode. This really ambitious goal cannot be reached…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments that constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ are now approaching the sensitivity at which delensing---removing the $B$ modes induced by the gravitational lensing of large-scale structure---is…
The decomposition of the cosmic shear field into E- and B-mode is an important diagnostic in weak gravitational lensing. However, commonly used techniques to perform this separation suffer from mode-mixing on very small or very large…
Since the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) was detected by the BICEP2 experiment and an unexpectedly large tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r=0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$, was found, the base standard cosmology should at least…
While vector modes are usually ignored in cosmology since they are not produced during inflation they are inevitably produced from the interaction of density fluctuations of differing wavelengths. This effect may be calculated via a…
We present measurements of polarization lensing using the 150 GHz maps which include all data taken by the BICEP2 & Keck Array CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2014 observing season (BK14). Despite their modest angular…
Cosmic strings are generically predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. We propose a new avenue for detecting cosmic strings through their effect on the filamentary structure in the cosmic web. Using…
We present current and future constraints on equations of state for dark sector perturbations. The equations of state considered are those corresponding to a generalized scalar field model and time-diffeomorphism invariant $L(g)$ theories…
We compute the energy spectrum of photons and neutrinos produced by the unwinding of a scaling distribution of cosmic textures, and discuss the implications for the spectrum of high energy cosmic rays, and for CMB spectral distortions.…
The BICEP2 collaboration has reported a strong B mode signal in the CMB polarization, which is well fit by a tensor-to-scalar ratio of r ~ 0.2. This is greater than the upper limit r < 0.11 obtained from the temperature anisotropies under…
Using analytical methods and Monte Carlo simulations, we analyze new statistics designed to detect isolated step-like discontinuities which are coherent over large areas of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) pixel maps. Such coherent…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization observations will require superb control of systematic errors in order to achieve their full scientific potential, particularly in the case of attempts to detect the B modes that may provide a…
We discuss implications of the latest BICEP/Keck data release for inflationary models, with special emphasis on the cosmological attractors which can describe all presently available inflation-related observational data. These models are…
The cosmological birefringence caused by the coupling between the cosmic scalar field and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons through the Chern-Simons term can rotate the polarization planes of the photons, and mix the CMB E-mode…
Cosmic birefringence -- the rotation of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons as they travel to the Earth -- is a smoking gun for axion-like particles (ALPs) that interact with the photon. It has recently been…
We study the effect of weak lensing by cosmic (super-)strings on the higher-order statistics of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A cosmic string segment is expected to cause weak lensing as well as an integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW)…
We show that the existence of cosmic strings can be strongly constrained by the next generation of gravitational lensing surveys at radio frequencies. We focus on cosmic string loops, which simulations suggest would be far more numerous…
Cosmic shear is considered one of the most powerful methods for studying the properties of Dark Energy in the Universe. As a standard method, the two-point correlation functions $xi_\pm(theta)$ of the cosmic shear field are used as…
Lensing of the CMB is affected by post-Born lensing, producing corrections to the convergence power spectrum and introducing field rotation. We show numerically that the lensing convergence power spectrum is affected at the $\lesssim 0.2\%$…