Lifting the dusty veil over inflation

Abstract

The Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarization High-Accuracy Experiment (PASIPHAE; K. Tassis et al., preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.05652; 2018) is a planned optical linear polarization survey of stars at high Galactic latitudes, aiming to provide a new probe of dust foregrounds in studies of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The goal of PASIPHAE is to help clear the path towards the detection of B-mode polarization in CMB — the imprint of an inflationary period in the early Universe. To achieve this goal, PASIPHAE will measure the polarization of millions of stars at high Galactic latitudes, and, in combination with stellar distances from ESA's Gaia mission, will tomographically map the three-dimensional structure of the plane-of-the-sky component of the magnetic field in interstellar clouds.

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