CAREER: The Birth Pangs of the Big Bang: Detecting Primordial Gravitational Waves with Microwave Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP)

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT AST 0548262 Brian Keating Dr. Brian Keating, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), will use the microwave Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) experiment to study cosmic inflation, and to test alternative models. The critical observational test of inflation is detection of the gravitational-wave background (GWB) that inflation generically produces. A promising way to detect this GWB is by its imprint on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). BICEP employs polarimeter technology invented by the PI to investigate cosmic reionization, interstellar dust, and the inflationary GWB from CMB polarization measurements. Specific aspects of this study include; 1) constraining inflations energy scale to within three times the ultimate cosmic limit; 2) detecting cosmic reionization; and 3) probing large-scale galactic magnetic fields and interstellar dust polarization. Dr Keatings education and public outreach (E/PO) plan is modeled on the program he initiated as an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (AAPF). The first project uses the radio telescope he constructed as an AAPF, to initiate a UCSD physics course in astronomical instrumentation and to measure polarized radio emission and the CMB itself. The PI will work to broaden the impact of his project as an upgrade to the NSF-funded Small Radio Telescope (SRT) project. The second E/PO effort is a project-based learning program with a new local high school. The project explores the challenges that face satellite mission designers and builds upon his experience and resources as a co-I for a NASA future mission concept study. The NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Office of Polar Programs jointly fund this award.