Summary remarks: Fundamental physics with the cosmic microwave background radiation

Abstract

This article is less a summary of the meeting, vibrant as it was, than a reflection on the present state of CMB studies. We are at an interesting juncture: in the week before the Irvine meeting, the rich results of the WMAP 3-year study were released, and the next goals in CMB studies have been examined in some detail by a recent multi-agency Task Force. I will look at the value of theory and phenomenology to the field, and the increasing importance of CMB studies to fundamental physics. Then I’ll move to challenges facing us over the next decade or so. These include coping with foreground emission, polarized and unpolarized, and readjusting the sociology of our field as experiments grow more complex and costly.