Related papers: Did BICEP2 see vector modes? First B-mode constrai…

The primordial B-modes component of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is a promising experimental dataset to probe the inflationary paradigm. B-modes are indeed a direct consequence of the presence of gravitational waves in…

Next generation CMB experiments such as CMB-S4 aim at measuring the CMB lensing potential at sub-percent precision where most of the constraining power will come from CMB polarization. We investigate the prospects of achieving this goal in…

We analyze the behavior of linear perturbations in vector inflation. In contrast to the scalar field inflation, the linearized theory with vector fields contains couplings between scalar, vector and tensor modes. The perturbations decouple…

The secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-modes stem from the post-decoupling distortion of the polarization $E$-modes due to the gravitational lensing effect of large-scale structures. These lensing-induced $B$-modes constitute…

We investigate the implications for inflation of the detection of B-modes polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by BICEP2. We show that the hypothesis of primordial origin of the measurement is only favored by the first four…

Cosmic strings are a type of cosmic defect formed by a symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early universe. Individual strings would have gathered to build a network, and their dynamical motion would induce scalar--, vector-- and…

We investigate which practical constraints are imposed by foregrounds to the detection of the B-mode polarization generated by gravitational waves in the case of experiments of the type currently being planned. Because the B-mode signal is…

One of the primary scientific targets of current and future CMB polarization experiments is the search for a stochastic background of gravity waves in the early universe. As instrumental sensitivity improves, the limiting factor will…

Aims. One of the main probes for systematic errors in the cosmic shear signal are the division of the shear field into E- and B-mode shear, where gravitational lensing only produces the former. As shown in a recent note, all currently used…

The CMB's B-mode polarization provides a handle on several cosmological parameters most notably the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, and is sensitive to parameters which govern the growth of large scale structure (LSS) and evolution of the…

The recently discovered alignment of quasar polarizations on very large scales could possibly explained by considering cosmic strings on a warped five dimensional spacetime. Compact objects, such as cosmic strings, could have tremendous…

In a companion paper we have reported a $>5\sigma$ detection of degree scale $B $-mode polarization at 150 GHz by the BICEP2 experiment. Here we provide a detailed study of potential instrumental systematic contamination to that…

We present methods to compute maps of CMB fluctuations from high resolution cosmic string networks using a full Boltzmann code, on both large and small angular scales. The accuracy and efficency of these methods are discussed.

We study the imprint of a coupling of scalar dark energy to photon on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. The time-evolving field value as well as the perturbation of the scalar generically induce $B$-mode polarization.…

Recent developments in the search for inflationary gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization motivate the search for new diagnostics to distinguish the Galactic foreground contribution to B modes from the…

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bispectrum of the temperature anisotropies induced by a network of cosmic strings is derived for small angular scales, under the assumption that the principal cause of temperature fluctuations is the…

Doppler peaks in the cosmic microwave background may allow us to distinguish among the two classes of theories-inflationary models and topological defect scenarios-which attempt to explain the origin of structure formation in the universe.…

Measuring the imprint of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation field is one of the main goals in modern cosmology. However, the so called $B$-mode polarisation can be generated by different…

The BICEP and Keck Array experiments are a suite of small-aperture refracting telescopes observing the microwave sky from the South Pole. They target the degree-scale B-mode polarization signal imprinted in the Cosmic Microwave Background…

Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…