Astronomy Tea Talk

  The BICEP2 telescope is a targeted instrument designed to search for the signature of primordial gravitational waves on the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background at degree angular scales.  Such gravitational waves are a generic prediction of inflationary models of the early universe.  BICEP2 observed from the South Pole Station from 2009-2012, mapping the sky at 150 GHz with an array of integrated antenna-coupled TES polarimeters cooled to 300 mK.  This detector technology, developed and fabricated at JPL/Caltech, has enabled a large increase in sensitivity with respect to previous instruments.  We will present the first results from this instrument, outline the observations and analysis that led to this result, as discuss its implications for cosmology.