Related papers: Fitting BICEP2 with defects, primordial gravitatio…
BICEP2 has reported the detection of a degree-scale B-mode polarization pattern in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and has interpreted the measurement as evidence for primordial gravitational waves. Motivated by the profound…
We analyse the possible contribution of topological defects to cosmic microwave anisotropies, both temperature and polarisation. We allow for the presence of both inflationary scalars and tensors, and of polarised dust foregrounds that may…
Scaling networks of cosmic defects, such as strings and textures, actively generate scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations throughout the history of the universe. In particular, {\em vector} modes sourced by defects are an efficient…
We show that the B-mode polarization signal detected at low multipoles by BICEP2 cannot be entirely due to topological defects. This would be incompatible with the high-multipole B-mode polarization data and also with existing temperature…
The BICEP2 collaboration reported recently a B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation inconsistent with the null hypothesis at a significance of > 5 {\sigma}. This result has been often interpreted as a…
The detection of B-modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization by the BICEP2 experiment, if interpreted as evidence for a primordial gravitational wave background, has enormous ramifications for cosmology and physics. It is…
We have analyzed the genus topology of the BICEP2 B-modes and find them to be Gaussian random phase as expected if they have a cosmological origin. These BICEP2 B-modes can be produced by gravity waves in the early universe, but some…
(abridged for arXiv) We report results from the BICEP2 experiment, a cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeter specifically designed to search for the signal of inflationary gravitational waves in the B-mode power spectrum around…
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…
Inflation predicts B-mode polarization with correlations that span superhorizon scales at recombination. In contrast, the correlations set up by causal sources, such as phase transitions or defects, necessarily vanish on superhorizon…
We investigate the prior dependence on the inferred spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations, in light of recent results from BICEP2 and taking into account a possible dust contribution to polarized anisotropies. We highlight an…
The measurement of B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background at large angular scales by the BICEP experiment suggests a stochastic gravitational wave background from early-universe inflation with a surprisingly large amplitude.…
Recently, BICEP2 measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization has indicated the presence of primordial gravitational waves at degree angular scales, inferring the tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r=0.2$ and a…
We consider the status of Higgs Inflation in light of the recently announced detection of B-modes in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation by the BICEP2 collaboration. In order for the primordial B-mode signal to be…
Recent microwave polarization measurements from the BICEP2 experiment may reveal a long-sought signature of inflation. However, these new results appear inconsistent with the best-fit model from the Planck satellite. We suggest a…
We present a new and especially powerful signature of cosmic strings and other topological or non-topological defects in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that even if defects contribute 1% or less in the…
For the simplest inflation models, the recent detection of a large primordial B-mode polarization signal by the BICEP2 experiment indicates a slight tension with the upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, from the Planck satellite.…
If the B-mode signal in the CMB polarization seen by the BICEP2 experiment is confirmed, it has dramatic implications for models of inflation. The result is also in tension with Planck limits on standard inflationary models. It is therefore…
Searches for inflationary gravitational wave signals in the CMB B-mode polarisation are expected to reach unprecedented power over the next decade. A major difficulty in these ongoing searches is that galactic foregrounds such as dust can…
The B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a unique window into tensor perturbations from inflationary gravitational waves. Survey effects complicate the estimation and description of the power spectrum on the…