News

Possible signal of inflationary gravitational waves discovered

(17/3/2014) The BICEP2 collaboration team discovered the primordial B-mode in the cosmic microwave background polarization at angular scales of 1~5 degree. The B-mode corresponds to a magnetic field (swirl pattern) if a vector field is decomposed into the sum of electric and magnetic fields. The origin of the B-mode is considered to be the gravitational waves produced by quantum fluctuations at the inflationary epoch (the universe undergoes accelerated expansion). Although, another independent study for checking the systematics of this experiment would be necessary,  this fascinating discovery may also accelerate the study of inflationary epoch of the universe otherwise difficult to directly probe.  For detail, see CfA site.

Plots of B-mode polarization. The lengths and directions of polarization are represented as black lines.