title: How much can we learn about the physics of inflation?
abstract: The recent BICEP2 measurement of B modes in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background suggests that inflation was driven by a field at an energy scale of 2 × 10(16) GeV. I explore the potential of upcoming cosmic microwave radiation polarization experiments to further constrain the physics underlying inflation. If the signal is confirmed, then two sets of experiments covering a large area will shed light on inflation. Low-resolution measurements can pin down the tensor to scalar ratio at the percent level, thereby distinguishing models from one another. A high angular resolution experiment will be necessary to measure the tilt of the tensor spectrum, testing the consistency relation that relates the tilt to the amplitude.
authors.affiliation: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510-0500, USA and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dodelson