Abstract
It is often said that detecting a spectrum of primordial gravitational waves via observing B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background is the “Holy Grail” of inflation. The purpose of this short note is to point out that it is indeed of immense scientific interest to search for a signal of gravitational waves in B-mode polarization. However, rather than proving that inflation is the right paradigm of early universe cosmology, a positive signal of direct primordial B-mode polarization might well be due to other sources than inflation. In fact, a careful characterization of the spectrum of B-mode polarization might even falsify the inflationary paradigm.
Highlights
At the present time, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is our most accurate tool to study the structure of the universe
The search for B-mode CMB polarization is one of the ways to detect a spectrum of primordial gravitational radiation on cosmological scales
Implicit in the claim that detecting primordial B-mode polarization will be the “Holy Grail” of inflation are two assumptions: firstly that there are no other sources of direct B-mode polarization except for gravitational waves, and secondly that if gravitational waves are responsible for B-mode polarization, these waves will come from inflation
Summary
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is our most accurate tool to study the structure of the universe. The current high precision maps provide strong support for the paradigm that the structure which we see in our universe comes from a primordial spectrum of almost adiabatic and almost scale-invariant fluctuations which were present on super-Hubble scales already before trec. The search for B-mode CMB polarization is one of the ways to detect a spectrum of primordial gravitational radiation on cosmological scales. It is currently often said that the measurement of gravitational radiation through the detection of primordial B-mode polarization is the “Holy Grail” needed to confirm that inflation is the correct theory of the very early universe I point out that IF there is a measurable spectrum of gravitational waves on cosmological scales, these waves could well be due to other sources than inflation. I will show that it is possible that B-mode polarization results could falsify the inflationary paradigm
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