Seminar
The discovery of the CMB B-mode polarization, a smoking-gun of Universe's inflation

Dr. Ricardo Genova Santos

Abstract

On March 17 the team responsible for the BICEP2 experiment, a CMB telescope located in the South Pole, announced the discovery of the primordial B-mode signal in the CMB polarization. This discovery inmediatly had a well-deserved impact in the media world-wide. In fact, it is the first observational confirmation of a prediction from the inflationary model, which was proposed at the beginning of the 80s as a solution for some inconsistencies of the Big Bang model. In this talk I will put this discovery in the context of CMB research, with a historical perspective. I will emphasize the importance of this discovery for Cosmology, and for Fundamental Physics, and will finally comment the prospects for the future, in particular the role of experiments like Quijote that have to confirm this signal.