PIRSA:14030112

Cosmic initial conditions and the CMB

Grin, D. (2014). Cosmic initial conditions and the CMB. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/14030112

Grin, Daniel. Cosmic initial conditions and the CMB. Perimeter Institute, Mar. 25, 2014, https://pirsa.org/14030112 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:14030112,
            doi = {10.48660/14030112},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/14030112},
            author = {Grin, Daniel},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {Cosmic initial conditions and the CMB},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2014},
            month = {mar},
            note = {PIRSA:14030112 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Daniel Grin

California Institute of Technology

Talk number
PIRSA:14030112
Collection
Talk Type
Subject
Abstract
One new frontier in cosmology is the frequency spectrum of the CMB. Future instruments may be precise enough to measure deviations from the nearly-perfect blackbody, measuring a chemical potential and thus probing energy injection at extremely high redshift. I will discuss ($\mu$ and $y$-type) CMB spectral distortions from the dissipation of entropy (isocurvature)-sourced acoustic modes. I will then discuss how a high-energy phase transition could also source such distortions. I will then switch gears and talk about the possibility of measuring a spatial fluctuation in the baryon/DM ratio using the CMB, including recent observational results. I may also muse on the surprising possible connection between these compensated isocurvature modes and the anomalously low large-scale scalar power hinted at by Planck observations of the CMB temperature power spectrum and the recent claimed BICEP2 detection of primordial tensor modes