CMB Temperature and Polarization Anisotropy Fundamentals

Abstract

The tremendous experimental progress in cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy studies over the last few years has helped establish a standard paradigm for cosmology at intermediate epochs and has simultaneously raised questions regarding the physical processes at the two opposite ends of time. What is the physics behind the source of structure in the universe and the dark energy that is currently accelerating its expansion? We review the acoustic phenomenology that forms the cornerstone of the standard cosmological model and discuss internal consistency relations which lend credence to its interpretation. We discuss future milestones in the study of CMB anisotropy that have implications for inflationary and dark energy models. These include signatures of gravitational waves and gravitational lensing in the polarization fields and secondary temperature anisotropy from the transit of CMB photons across the large-scale structure of the universe.