ITC Pizza Lunch Sarah Shandera (Penn State)

"The Search for Primordial Gravitational Waves"

Abstract: Observations of the cosmic microwave background so far reveal no evidence of gravitational waves in the very early universe. I will discuss what a detection or an improved upper limit could tell us about cosmology, particle physics, and gravity, and specifically what we hope to learn from the next generation of ground-based CMB polarization instruments.