Hiranya V. Peiris

University of Cambridge

Research field

Cosmology, testing the physics of the early universe with data

Hiranya Peiris was first author of the WMAP team's paper that compared the predictions of inflation with the satellite's first year of data. It showed that the pattern of temperature and polarization on large angles is the signature of fluctuations larger than the horizon, and it used the slope of the fluctuation spectrum and limits on gravitational waves to disfavor a specific inflation model. The unit uses this work to show how the microwave background tests inflation.

In the masterclass

The spotlight closes Section 6, after the list of predictions of inflation and what the spectral index and the acoustic peaks say about them.

The research is presented in Unit 14: The Hot Big Bang and the Cosmic Microwave Background, in a research spotlight box that explains the result at the level of the unit and links it to the physics you have just learned.

The paper

First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Implications for Inflation