Cosmology with Advanced Likelihoods for the Cosmic Microwave Background

The plan for this PhD is to develop advanced techniques for the analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation and apply them to learn about the Universe.

In particular, this will involve the construction of an advanced likelihood for CMB polarization data from the south-pole-based-BICEP telescope.

This likelihood will be based on the "momento" likelihood scheme, developed for low-multipole analysis of data from the Planck satellite.

The extension to higher multipoles brings significant increases in data volume which will require new analytical and computational acceleration techniques.

Such a likelihood should improve limits on primordial gravitational waves and so allow us to better test models of the early Universe such as high energy inflation.