Can you hear me.

On behalf of the organizing committee,  I would like to welcome you to this
workshop on Primordial Gravitational  Waves. This meeting is sponsored by
the Centre for theoretical cosmology,  located here in DAMTP. The purpose of
CTC, is to advance the development of theories of the universe, which are
both mathematically consistent, and observationally testable. Each  year, we
hold workshops on specific topics at the frontiers of cosmology, where we
believe important progress is soon going to be made. CTC aims to bring
together the world's leading researchers, along with people from the key
experiments.

Few areas offer more hope for advancing cosmology, than gravitational
waves.The CMB can look back to t=300,000 years, when the universe became
transparent to light. But with gravitational waves we can look back much
much further,even back to the earliest moments of the creation of the
universe itself. The purpose of this workshop, is to learn more about the
signatures of gravitational waves, which could be used to test our theories
of the early universe.

Early in my career, I wanted to look for gravitational waves myself.With my
then student, Gary Gibbons. We began developing plans for an experiment,
using a Weber bar. We were going to set it up in the basement of the old
DAMTP building, in Silver Street. We approached our research council for
funding. They called a panel meeting to discuss it. By the time the meeting
came up, groups in Glasgow and Bristol, had also taken up the idea, and we
all agreed that they were better placed to pursue such an ambitious
experiment. This was good for everyone, and let Gary and me off the hook. We
would still be looking for gravitational waves. Theory is much easier. 

I have personal interest in the search for gravitational waves. I have a bet
with Neil Turok, that primordial gravitational waves will be observed, with
a ratio of tensors to scalars, of above 5%.  I believe that gravitational
waves, will match the predictions of the no boundary wave function, with an
M squared Phi squared inflation potential. Neil's ekpyrotic model,
generically predicts no gravitational waves. I look forward to your help, so
that I can settle this bet soon!

I hope you enjoy the meeting. Thank you.