Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

I will discuss my work on the South Pole Telescope polarization sensitive camera, SPTpol, that was designed to measure the E-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), characterize the B-mode polarization induced by the gravitational lensing of the primordial E-mode CMB polarization, and to detect or set an upper limit on the level of the B-mode polarization from inflationary gravitational waves.  I will discuss the innovations in both instrumentation and analysis required to probe cosmology using the cosmic microwave background.  Finally I will discuss prospects for measuring the inflationary B-mode polarization imprinted on the CMB from gravitational waves with future instruments in the coming years.