B mode detected by South Pole Telescope

[skydivephil]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.5830

but its from gravitational lensing not primordial gravity waves so guess we are still waiting for those, but a good sign methinks.

 

[Mordred]

thanks I found it an interesting read

 

[Chalnoth]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.5830

but its from gravitational lensing not primordial gravity waves so guess we are still waiting for those, but a good sign methinks.

That's really cool :)

Unfortunately, getting at the gravitational lensing portion of the B-mode requires going to very large scales (low \ell), and the South Pole Telescope isn't equipped for measuring very large scales (it can effectively see roughly 1/10th of the sky, and the survey area is just over half that).

I'm hoping that the EBEX results will be available before too long. It flew late last year/early this year, and was designed explicitly for the detection of large-scale polarization signals. I'm rather excited to see what they find.