Department Colloquium | The Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Speaker: Bruce Winstein (University of Chicago)

We will review the exciting science that becomes accessible in precise measurements of the CMB, particularly its polarization. After a general introduction, the QUIET experiment which has been collecting data in Chile for nearly 4 months will be discussed. Coherent detectors are used to study the possible Inflationary Gravity Wave Background. A positive detection allows the exploration of physics at the highest imaginable energy scales. The challenges in detecting a signal are formidable: we'll take a little time to consider if the current approach is the ideal one.