AbstractThe search for B-mode, or curl-type, polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background is the most promising technique to constrain or detect primordial gravitational waves predicted by the theory of inflation. The Bicep telescope, which observed from the South Pole for three years from 2006 through 2008, is the first experiment specifically designed to target this signal. We review the observational motivations for inflation, the advantages of B-mode observations as a technique for detecting the gravitational wave background, and the design features of Bicep that optimize it for this search. The final analysis of all three seasons of Bicep data is in progress, representing a 50% increase in integration time compared to the result from Chiang et al. (2010). A preview of the three year result includes E-mode and B-mode maps, as well as the projected constraint on r, the tensor-to-scalar ratio.
Constraints on primordial gravitational waves from the cosmic microwave background
