We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In particula
r, a detection of primordial B-mode polarization would demonstrate that inflation occurred at a very high energy scale, and that the inflaton traversed a super-Planckian distance in field space. We explain how such a detection or constraint would illuminate aspects of physics at the Planck scale. Moreover, CMB measurements can constrain the scale-dependence and non-Gaussianity of the primordial fluctuations and limit the possibility of a significant isocurvature contribution. Each such limit provides crucial information on the underlying inflationary dynamics. Finally, we quantify these considerations by presenting forecasts for the sensitivities of a future satellite experiment to the inflationary parameters.
Quantum mechanical metric fluctuations during an early inflationary phase of the universe leave a characteristic imprint in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The amplitude of this signal depends on the energy scale at which i
nflation occurred. Detailed observations by a dedicated satellite mission (CMBPol) therefore provide information about energy scales as high as $10^{15}$ GeV, twelve orders of magnitude greater than the highest energies accessible to particle accelerators, and probe the earliest moments in the history of the universe. This summary provides an overview of a set of studies exploring the scientific payoff of CMBPol in diverse areas of modern cosmology, such as the physics of inflation, gravitational lensing and cosmic reionization, as well as foreground science and removal .
A characteristic of D-brane inflation is that fluctuations in the inflaton field can propagate at a speed significantly less than the speed of light. This yields observable effects that are distinct from those of single-field slow roll inflation, suc
h as a modification of the inflationary consistency relation and a potentially large level of non-Gaussianities. We present a numerical algorithm that extends the inflationary flow formalism to models with general speed of sound. For an ensemble of D-brane inflation models parameterized by the Hubble parameter and the speed of sound as polynomial functions of the inflaton field, we give qualitative predictions for the key inflationary observables. We discuss various consistency relations for D-brane inflation, and compare the qualitative shapes of the warp factors we derive from the numerical models with analytical warp factors considered in the literature. Finally, we derive and apply a generalized microphysical bound on the inflaton field variation during brane inflation. While a large number of models are consistent with current cosmological constraints, almost all of these models violate the compactification constraint on the field range in four-dimensional Planck units. If the field range bound is to hold, then models with a detectable level of non-Gaussianity predict a blue scalar spectral index, and a tensor component that is far below the detection limit of any future experiment.
