Inflationary Cosmology with BICEPs

How did the universe begin ? This is one of the deepest mysteries in science. I will describe the BICEP program, a series of South Pole-based experiments aiming to answer this question by studying the polarization of cosmic microwave background radiation. This whole enterprise is an amazing combination of big ideas (inflation, general relativity, and quantum gravity) and cutting edge technology (superconductors, quantum electronics, microwave engineering, and advanced materials). In March 2014, the second experiment of the series BICEP2 has announced a detection of degree-scale B-mode polarization that is consistent with having an inflationary origin. I will describe what this measurement means and how we are going to follow up on it.

Speaker: Chao-Lin Kuo, Stanford