Simons Foundation to build $40 million telescope for primordial gravitational-wave search

Nature : The gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory were produced by the collision of two black holes. But models suggest that the universe is also flooded with ripples in spacetime that were created during the inflationary period that followed the Big Bang. Those ripples are expected to be detectable indirectly as B modes, patterns in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. In 2014, the BICEP2 experiment reported finding B modes, but the signal was later shown to be the result of interstellar dust. To join the search, the nonprofit Simons Foundation has revealed plans to build a $40 million telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It will use around 50 000 detectors, about 10 times as many as the largest current B-mode telescopes. The presence of B modes in the CMB would offer strong evidence that some version of the theory of inflation is correct.