Measuring B-modes

The announcement of the measurement of B-mode polarization on large angular scales came as a shock to the scientific community, but the team claiming the detection had been living with the signs for months. Kernasovskiy will cover the BICEP2 measurement in detail, including the innovations needed in detectors to reach such exquisite sensitivities, and the rigorous analysis to which the data was subjected and which finally gave them the confidence to announce. She will also cover the BICEP2 and Keck Array results published since the initial announcement and discuss the next steps.