Louis Schwing: Interview Transcript, Part 1

Interview With: Louis Schwing Date of Interview: 4/12/2016 Location of Interview: Dewey, IL Transcribed by: Jessica Craig Date(s) of Transcription: 9/1/2016 Length of Interview: 01:30:2

William Cresap: Interview Transcript

Interview With: William Cresap Date of Interview: 4/08/2016 Location of Interview: Rural Champaign County Transcribed by: Jessica Craig Date(s) of Transcription: 8/30/2016 Length of Interview: 00:23:3

Louis Schwing: Interview Transcript, Part 1

Interview With: Louis Schwing Date of Interview: 4/12/2016 Location of Interview: Dewey, IL Transcribed by: Jessica Craig Date(s) of Transcription: 9/1/2016 Length of Interview: 01:30:2

Quantifying the BICEP2-Planck Tension over Gravitational Waves

The recent BICEP2 measurement of primordial gravity waves (r = 0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}) appears to be in tension with the upper limit from WMAP (r<0.13 at 95% CL) and Planck (r<0.11 at 95% CL). We carefully quantify the level of tension and show that it is very significant (around 0.1% unlikely) when the observed deficit of large-scale temperature power is taken into account. We show that measurements of TE and EE power spectra in the near future will discriminate between the hypotheses that this tension is either a statistical fluke, or a sign of new physics. We also discuss extensions of the standard cosmological model that relieve the tension, and some novel ways to constrain them.Comment: v2: minor changes matching PRL published versio