Did m2φ2 bite the dust? A closer look at ns and r

Abstract

I will review measurements of the angular power spectrum of temperature perturbations from Planck data by the Planck collaboration and by Renee Hlozek, David Spergel and myself and will discuss the small differences in the scalar spectral index between the two. I will then combine these measurements with the recent measurement of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background by BICEP2 as well as the measurements of polarized emission from dust by the Planck collaboration to derive the current (but soon outdated) constraints on the spectral index of scalar perturbations and the amount of primordial gravitational waves. I will show that the data now disfavors the simplest model of inflation at 2-3 sigma depending on the choice of likelihood for the temperature data.