Speaker
Description
Since the accidental discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in 1964-65, detailed studies of it have allowed us to measure many of the most important properties of the Universe. Cosmic Inflation, first proposed by Alan Guth in 1980, argues that between about $10^{-36}$ and $10^{-32}~{\rm s}$ after the Big Bang the Universe underwent a period of very rapid expansion, increasing its size from smaller than a proton to about the size of a marble, an increase of a factor of $\sim10^{13}$. If this happened, it would leave an imprint on the CMB in the form of B-mode polarisation, due to the gravitational waves produced by this rapid expansion. The Simons Array, operating since 2012, has succeeded in measuring the B-mode polarisation of the CMB due to the Universe's large scale structure. In this talk, we report on the progress made in detecting the component of the B-mode polarisation due to Cosmic Inflation. The Simons Array comprises three telescopes on the Chajnantor Plateau of the Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 5,200 metres, the driest place on Earth.
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