CAPMAP Announces Final Results: CMB Polarization at Small Angular Scales, Bruce Winstein, Colin Bischoff, and Jeff McMahon

The Cosmic Anisotropy Polarization MAPper (CAPMAP) collaboration has announced new measurements of the cosmic microwave background polarization, extending the range of previous measurements to smaller angular scales.

The polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a unique window into the physics of the early Universe. Polarization can be decomposed into two components: the dominant E-modes and the much smaller B-modes. E-modes are sourced by the same density perturbations that give rise to the observed temperature anisotropies in the CMB while B-modes arise from both gravity waves generated during the period of inflation and gravitational lensing of the CMB by the cosmic web of dark matter.

Using the 7-meter Crawford Hill Antenna in New Jersey, CAPMAP completed its final data-taking season in the winter of 2004-2005, collecting over 900 hours of good data. [more]