Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2000-11-17
Int.J.Mod.Phys. A16S1A (2001) 116-128
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
13 page, 4 figures. To appear in the proceedings of DPF2000, Columbus, 9-12 August 2000 and (with slight revisions) in the pro
Scientific paper
10.1142/S0217751X01006358
Recent measurements of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicate that the Universe is flat and that large-scale structure grew via gravitational infall from primordial adiabatic perturbations. Both of these observations seem to indicate that we are on the right track with inflation. But what is the new physics responsible for inflation? This question can be answered with observations of the polarization of the CMB. Inflation predicts robustly the existence of a stochastic background of cosmological gravitational waves with an amplitude proportional to the square of the energy scale of inflation. This gravitational-wave background induces a unique signature in the polarization of the CMB. If inflation took place at an energy scale much smaller than that of grand unification, then the signal will be too small to be detectable. However, if inflation had something to do with grand unification or Planck-scale physics, then the signal is conceivably detectable in the optimistic case by the Planck satellite, or if not, then by a dedicated post-Planck CMB polarization experiment. Realistic developments in detector technology as well as a proper scan strategy could produce such a post-Planck experiment that would improve on Planck's sensitivity to the gravitational-wave background by several orders of magnitude in a decade timescale.
Jaffe Andrew H.
Kamionkowski Marc
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