BICEP2, Planck, spinorial space-time, pre-Big Bang.

Abstract

Abstract. The field of Cosmology is currently undergoing a positive and constructive crisis. Controversies concerning inflation are not really new. But after the 2013-2014 Planck and BICEP2 announcements, and the more recent joint analysis by Planck, BICEP2 and the Keck Array (PBKA), the basic issues can involve more direct links between the Mathematical Physics aspects of cosmological patterns and the interpretation of experimental results. Open questions and new ideas on the foundations of Cosmology can emerge, while future experimental and observational programs look very promising. The BICEP2 result reporting an excess of B-mode polarization signal of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation was initially presented as a signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic inflation. But polarized dust emission can be at the origin of such a signal, and the evidence claimed by BICEP2 is no longer secure after the PBKA analysis. Furthermore, even assuming that significant CMB B-mode polarization has indeed been generated by the early Universe, its theoretical and cosmological interpretation would be far from obvious. Inflationary gravitational waves are not the only possible source of primordial CMB B-modes. Alternative cosmologies such as pre-Big Bang patterns and the spinorial space-time (SST) we introduced in 1996-97 can naturally produce this polarization. Furthermore, the SST automatically generates for each comoving observer a local privileged space direction (PSD) whose existence may have been confirmed by Planck data. If such a PSD exists, vector perturbations have most likely been strong in the early Universe and may have produced CMB B-modes. Pre-Big Bang cosmologies can also generate gravitational waves in the early Universe without inflation. After briefly describing detectors devoted to the study of the CMB polarization, we discuss the situation emerging from BICEP2 results, Planck results and the PBKA analysis. In particular, we further analyze possible alternatives to the inflationary interpretation of a primordial B-mode polarization of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Tests and prospects of new physics at very high energy. Beyond the standard basic principles, and beyond conventional matter and space-time. On the possible origin of Quantum Mechanics.

“…But it was already pointed out in [36,37] that a simple preonic pre-Big Bang approach based on superluminal ultimate constituents (superbradyons) [38] can avoid basic difficulties that had led to cosmic inflation, such as the horizon problem. The flatness problem appears to be naturally solved [14,15] by the SST cosmic geometry, that can be combined with a pre-Big Bang scenario [1].…”

“…Instead, the pattern considered in [39][40][41][42][43] assumes that the conventional bosonic zero modes and boson fields condense in vacuum only in the presence of surrounding standard matter (including the graviton and gravitational waves), and that this condensation occurs only in the relevant frequency domain. This amounts to a suppression of the standard cosmological constant that can then be replaced by a new object, Λ, decreasing with the matter density of the Universe [1,44]. A new approach to the renormalization of quantum field theory (QFT) is also tacitly introduced in this way.…”

“…Furthermore, both the SST approach with its automatic geometric expansion of the Universe, and the pre-Big Bang pattern considered in [50,51] with a gravitational instanton at cosmic time t = 0 , raise the basic question of the primordial fundamental information at the origin of cosmic time. Such a problematics has traditionally been rejected by standard cosmology [1,40] on the grounds of the quantum uncertainty principle for very small distance and time scales in the Big Bang [35].…”

“…In [1], we discuss alternatives to standard cosmology (conventional Big Bang + inflation, ΛCDM) to interpret recent results by Planck [2][3][4] and the possible existence of primordial CMB B-modes. The BICEP2 announcements [5,6] have finally not been confirmed [7], but further searches for primordial CMB B-modes may yield a positive result.…”

“…megatrend Galactic dust can be at the origin of the CMB B-modes observed by BICEP2 [7][8][9][10][11]. But as emphasized in [1], if CMB B-modes corresponding to a signature of the early Universe dynamics are finally found, they can, together with the local privileged space direction (PSD) [12,13] possibly observed by Planck [4], provide an unprecedented evidence [14,15] for the spinorial space-time (SST) we introduced in 1996-97 [16,17]. Further experimental work will help to clarify the situation [1].…”