Fredagskollokvium: Levon Pogosian: CMB B-modes - the quest for other smoking guns

A large scale primordial B-mode signal in the CMB polarization would constitute a smoking gun of inflation and is the main target of several ongoing and upcoming experiments. In my talk I will focus on distinguishing features of two other potential sources of primordial B-modes - magnetic fields and cosmic strings, both of which predict most of the B-mode power to be on smaller angular scales. I will also discuss prospects of their detection and implications for the underlying fundamental physics.