ICCUB SEMINAR: Measurements of Degree-Scale B-mode Polarization with the BICEP/Keck Experiments at South Pole

2018-09-25

00:00

DAM Seminar - UB

ICCUB SEMINAR: Measurements of Degree-Scale B-mode Polarization with the BICEP/Keck Experiments at South Pole

The BICEP and Keck experiments, located at the South Pole, are currently observing the polarized microwave sky at the degree scale using refractive telescopes. They are searching for a signature of primordial gravitational waves in the so-called B modes of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), parametrized with the tensor-to-scalar ratio r.

In this talk I will introduce our latest analysis which includes BICEP2 and Keck array data up to the end of 2015.
These are the deepest CMB polarization maps to date at 95, 150 and for the first time 220GHz.

We use these multiple frequency channels in combination with Planck and WMAP data to constrain a model consisting of the lensed-LCDM + r, Galactic dust and synchrotron, with a projected sigma(r) of 0.02.

I will give an update on the subsequent observations from BICEP3 and the Keck array which took place in 2016 and 2017, providing more data at 95, 150, 220 and a new 270GHz channel.

I will then review the ongoing developments of BICEP Array (BA), the stage 3 upgrade, which will observe with 40,000 detectors, ranging from 30 to 270GHz. BA will improve the sensitivity to the primordial B-mode signal by one order of magnitude.

I will conclude with CMB Stage 4 (S4), an ambitious future program with up to half a million detectors, that will observe from South Pole and Chile.

Contact email: secretariacientifica(a)icc.ub.edu