Primordial Gravitational Waves

Robert Caldwell from Dartmouth College will come to speak about Primordial gravitational Waves. The recent detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory opens a new window for discovery onto the Universe. In this talk I will describe a further goal, to detect gravitational waves arising from quantum fluctuations of spacetime in the earliest moments of the Big Bang. The primary method for observation is through the subtle imprint on the cosmic microwave background, though a futuristic space-based observatory could directly detect these waves, too. I will explore the treasure trove of information encoded in the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves, including a complete inventory of all particles and fields, and clues to the accelerated expansion of the Universe