NPA Zoom Seminar, Kimmy Wu, SLAC/KIPAC, “Improved Constraint on Primordial Gravitational Waves with Delensing”

Event time: 
Thursday, February 4, 2021 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Online () See map
Event description: 

Inflation generically predicts a background of primordial gravitational waves, which generate a primordial B-mode component in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The measurement of such a B-mode signature would lend significant support to the paradigm of inflation. Observed B modes also contain a component from the gravitational lensing of primordial E modes, which can obscure the measurement of the primordial B modes. We reduce the sample variance in the BB spectrum contributed from this lensing component by a process called ‘delensing.’ In this talk, I will show results from the first demonstration in an improved constraint on primordial gravitational waves with delensing using data from BICEP/Keck, the South Pole Telescope (SPT), and Planck. In addition, I will provide an outlook of joint-analysis efforts of the BICEP/Keck and the SPT collaborations (the South Pole Observatory) and next-generation experiment CMB-S4 to constrain primordial gravitational waves.

Zoom link: https://yale.zoom.us/j/93903961284?pwd=empxRWhzdkY5SXpuQ2U2NmR1aWlpZz09

Open to: 
undergraduate