Losing the Nobel Prize

Brian Keating, 2018 . Beaverton . 523.18 KEA


Brian Keating co-invented the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) telescope at Caltech in 2002, deployed at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in 2005. 98 detectors, 50 at 100 GHz and 48 at 150 GHz, sensitive to the polarization of the Cosmic Ray Background.

BICEP2 detected gravitational-wave B-modes with an SNR of 5, implying lower than 1:3e6 odds of statistical fluke.

March 16 2014 video with Andrei Linde

Page 252: Sn1a dimmer than expected, and astronomers like Adam Riess suspected dust, then subtracted it out. BICEP2 results mimic dust.

LosingNobel (last edited 2018-08-21 07:39:52 by KeithLofstrom)