This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the
next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4,
envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high
Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped
with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological
studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode
polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination
of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new
light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general
relativity on large scales.
