Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season

We present results from an analysis of all data taken by the BICEP2, Keck Array, and BICEP3 CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2018 observing season. We add additional Keck Array observations at 220 GHz and BICEP3 observations at 95 GHz to the previous 95/150/220 GHz dataset. The Q/U maps now reach depths of 2.8, 2.8, and 8.8 mu K-CMP arcmin at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, respectively, over an effective area of approximate to 600 square degrees at 95 GHz and approximate to 400 square degrees at 150 and 220 GHz. The 220 GHz maps now achieve a signal-to-noise ratio on polarized dust emission exceeding that of Planck at 353 GHz. We take auto- and cross-spectra between these maps and publicly available WMAP and Planck maps at frequencies from 23 to 353 GHz and evaluate the joint likelihood of the spectra versus a multicomponent model of lensed ACDM + r + dust + synchrotron + noise. The foreground model has seven parameters, and no longer requires a prior on the frequency spectral index of the dust emission taken from measurements on other regions of the sky. This model is an adequate description of the data at the current noise levels. The likelihood analysis yields the constraint r(0.05) < 0.036 at 95% confidence. Running maximum likelihood search on simulations we obtain unbiased results and find that sigma(r) = 0.009. These are the strongest constraints to date on primordial gravitational waves.

Automated summary

This study presents the analysis of data from the BICEP2, Keck Array, and BICEP3 CMB polarization experiments up to 2018, with additional observations added. By comparing with WMAP and Planck maps, the study provides strong constraints on primordial gravitational waves.