Physical Society Colloquium

Planck's view of the origin of cosmic structure

Hiranya Peiris

University College London

The observed properties of the primordial fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can provide constraints on physical theories in regimes otherwise inaccessible to experiment. The Planck satellite has recently dramatically sharpened our view of the early universe and provided a window into the origin of cosmic structure. I will describe how the Planck data promote our understanding of the extreme physics of the very early universe, and what we have yet to learn. I will set the Planck results in the context of current and upcoming ground-based CMB experiments, which will push forward our understanding of cosmology with new observables such as the polarisation and weak lensing of the CMB.