How much can we learn about the physics of inflation?

Abstract

The recent BICEP2 measurement of B-modes in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background suggests that inflation was driven by a field at an energy scale of $2\times 10^{16}$ GeV. I explore the potential of upcoming CMB polarization experiments to further constrain the physics underlying inflation. If the signal is confirmed, then two sets of experiments covering larger area will shed light on inflation. Low resolution measurements can pin down the tensor to scalar ratio at the percent level, thereby distinguishing models from one another. A high angular resolution experiment will be necessary to measure the tilt of the tensor spectrum, testing the consistency relation that relates the tilt to the amplitude.

arXiv comment5 pages, 7 figures; references updated and consistency relation fixed leading to some plot changes

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Cited by in corpus (25)

• Nonperturbative Dynamics Of Reheating After Inflation: A Review
• BICEP2 / Keck Array V: Measurements of B-mode Polarization at Degree Angular Scales and 150 GHz by the Keck Array
• Trace-anomaly driven inflation in modified gravity and the BICEP2 result
• Generalised tensor fluctuations and inflation
• Natural Chaotic Inflation and UV Sensitivity
• Prospects for Delensing the Cosmic Microwave Background for Studying Inflation
• Unifying inflation and dark matter with the Peccei-Quinn field: observable axions and observable tensors
• B-modes and the Nature of Inflation
• Implications of the scalar tilt for the tensor-to-scalar ratio
• High-Scale Inflation and the Tensor Tilt
• ${\varphi }^2$ or Not ${\varphi }^2$: Testing the Simplest Inflationary Potential
• Multi-wavelength constraints on the inflationary consistency relation
• ${\varphi }^2$ Inflation at its Endpoint
• One-loop Modified Gravity in de Sitter Universe, Quantum Corrected Inflation, and its Confrontation with the Planck Result
• Gravitational wave consistency relations for multifield inflation
• Future cosmic microwave background delensing with galaxy surveys
• A model-independent fit to Planck and BICEP2 data
• Phenomenological approaches of inflation and their equivalence
• On testing and extending the inflationary consistency relation for tensor modes
• The Tilt of Primordial Gravitational Waves Spectra from BICEP2
• Improving Constraints on Inflation with CMB Delensing
• On Dark Matter Selected High-Scale Supersymmetry
• Constraints on the cosmological parameters from BICEP2, Planck and WMAP
• Topological Inflation with Large Tensor-to-scalar Ratio
• Radiative Inflation and Dark Energy RIDEs Again after BICEP2