Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies


 LiteBIRD the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with an expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA’s H3 rocket. LiteBIRD is planned to orbit the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L2, where it will map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization over the entire sky for three years, with three telescopes in 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz, to achieve an unprecedented total sensitivity of 2.2 μK-arcmin, with a typical angular resolution of 0.5○ at 100 GHz. The primary scientific objective of LiteBIRD is to search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission and system requirements, operation concept, spacecraft and payload module design, expected scientific outcomes, potential design extensions and synergies with other projects. Subject Index LiteBIRD cosmic inflation, cosmic microwave background, B-mode polarization, primordial gravitational waves, quantum gravity, space telescope

/pdf/probing-cosmic-inflation-with-the-litebird-cosmic-microwave-2e32esp1.pdf

Probing Cosmic Inflation with the LiteBIRD Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Survey

We present constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ using a combination of BICEP/Keck 2018 (BK18) and Planck PR4 data allowing us to fit for $r$ consistently with the six parameters of the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model. We discuss the sensitivity of constraints on $r$ to uncertainties in the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ parameters as defined by the Planck data. In particular, we are able to derive a constraint on the reionization optical depth $\ensuremath{\tau}$ and thus propagate its uncertainty into the posterior distribution for $r$. While Planck sensitivity to $r$ is slightly lower than the current ground-based measurements, the combination of Planck with BK18 and baryon-acoustic-oscillation data yields results consistent with $r=0$ and tightens the constraint to $r&lt;0.032$ at 95% confidence. 

/pdf/improved-limits-on-the-tensor-to-scalar-ratio-using-bicep-165zkmg0.pdf

Improved limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio using BICEP and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mi>l</mml:mi><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mi>c</mml:mi><mml:mi>k</mml:mi></mml:math> data

Cosmology requires new physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles and fields. What is the fundamental physics behind dark matter and dark energy? What generated the initial fluctuations in the early Universe? Polarised light of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may hold the key to answers. In this article, we discuss two new developments in this research area. First, if the physics behind dark matter and dark energy violates parity symmetry, their coupling to photons rotates the plane of linear polarisation as the CMB photons travel more than 13 billion years. This effect is known as `cosmic birefringence': space filled with dark matter and dark energy behaves as if it were a birefringent material, like a crystal. A tantalising hint for such a signal has been found with the statistical significance of $3\sigma$. Next, the period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe, called `cosmic inflation', produced a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves (GW). What generated GW? The leading idea is vacuum fluctuations in spacetime, but matter fields could also produce a significant amplitude of primordial GW. Finding its origin using CMB polarisation opens a new window into the physics behind inflation. These new scientific targets may influence how data from future CMB experiments are collected, calibrated, and analysed. 

New physics from the polarized light of the cosmic microwave background

We search for the signature of parity-violating physics in the cosmic microwave background, called cosmic birefringence, using the Planck data release 4. We initially find a birefringence angle of $\beta=0.30\pm0.11$ (68% C.L.) for nearly full-sky data. The values of $\beta$ decrease as we enlarge the Galactic mask, which can be interpreted as the effect of polarized foreground emission. Two independent ways to model this effect are used to mitigate the systematic impact on $\beta$ for different sky fractions. We choose not to assign cosmological significance to the measured value of $\beta$ until we improve our knowledge of the foreground polarization. 

http://link.aps.org/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.091302

Cosmic Birefringence from the <i>Planck</i> Data Release 4

We present results from an analysis of all data taken by the BICEP2, Keck Array, and BICEP3 CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2018 observing season. We add additional Keck Array observations at 220 GHz and BICEP3 observations at 95 GHz to the previous 95 / 150 / 220 GHz dataset. The Q / U maps now reach depths of 2.8, 2.8, and 8.8 μ K CMB arcmin at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, respectively, over an effective area of ≈ 600 square degrees at 95 GHz and ≈ 400 square degrees at 150 and 220 GHz. The 220 GHz maps now achieve a signal-to-noise ratio on polarized dust emission exceeding that of Planck at 353 GHz. We take auto- and cross-spectra between these maps and publicly available WMAP and Planck maps at frequencies from 23 to 353 GHz and evaluate the joint likelihood of the spectra versus a multicomponent model of lensed Λ CDM + r + dust + synchrotron + noise . The foreground model has seven parameters, and no longer requires a prior on the frequency spectral index of the dust emission taken from measurements on other regions of the sky. This model is an adequate description of the data at the current noise levels. The likelihood analysis yields the constraint r 0.05 0.036 at 95% confidence. Running maximum likelihood search on simulations we obtain unbiased results and find that σ ( r ) = 0.009 . These are the strongest constraints to date on primordial gravitational waves.

/pdf/improved-constraints-on-primordial-gravitational-waves-using-k58297spwx.pdf

D Barkats

Papers

Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season.