Probing the origin of our Universe through cosmic microwave background constraints on gravitational waves

Abstract

The next generation of instruments designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will provide a historic opportunity to open the gravitational wave window to the primordial Universe. Through high sensitivity searches for primordial gravitational waves, and tighter limits on the energy released in processes like phase transitions, the CMB polarization data of the next decade has the potential to transform our understanding of the laws of physics underlying the formation of the Universe.

arXiv comment5 pages + references; Submitted to the Astro2020 call for science white papers

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Signals of a Quantum Universe
• The Simons Observatory: Astro2020 Decadal Project Whitepaper
• CMB targets after the latest Planck data release
• Production and Backreaction of Fermions from Axion-$SU(2)$ Gauge Fields during Inflation
• Effects of Gravitational Chern-Simons during Axion-SU(2) Inflation
• Foreground Separation and Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves with the PICO Space Mission
• B-mode Targets
• Unveiling the nonlinear dynamics of a rolling axion during inflation
• M-theory Cosmology, Octonions, Error Correcting Codes
• The limits of cosmology: role of the Moon
• Hierarchical Bayesian CMB Component Separation with the No-U-Turn Sampler
• Zoology of Graviton non-Gaussianities
• Large and small field inflation from hyperbolic sigma models
• Production and backreaction of massive fermions during axion inflation with non-Abelian gauge fields
• New Technologies for Discovery