Testing inflationary cosmology with BICEP2 and the Keck Array
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The BICEP2 and Keck Array experimental programs consist of arrays of microwave polarimeters located at the South Pole designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background. B-mode polarization is a generic prediction of the theory of Inflation, which hypothesizes a period of exponential expansion preceding the Hot Big Bang. This inflation is hypothesized to have been driven by physics beyond the Standard Model, at energies of order the Planck scale. After three years of observations at 150GHz, BICEP2 reported a detection of B-mode polarization at degree angular scales. The Keck Array was deployed in 2010, with an instantaneous mapping speed a few times faster than that of BICEP2. The Keck Array is expected to improved upon the BICEP2 results by mapping the same region of sky at 100 and 150GHz. The analysis of BICEP2 utilized a new method for distinguishing E-mode polarization from B-mode polarization. In developing this method, we have produced a matrix operator which transforms an image of true sky into a map of the sky as seen by BICEP2.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2014 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Tolan, Jamie |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics. |
| Primary advisor | Kuo, Chao-Lin |
| Thesis advisor | Kuo, Chao-Lin |
| Thesis advisor | Cabrera, Blas |
| Thesis advisor | Church, Sarah Elizabeth |
| Advisor | Cabrera, Blas |
| Advisor | Church, Sarah Elizabeth |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jamie Tolan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2014. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2014 by James Edward Tolan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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