How Certain Are the BICEP2 Findings?

Abstract

In this essay, I will give my view on how much we can believe the BICEP2 results and the conclusions that could be drawn from them. This actually breaks down into a whole sequence of questions. Has BICEP2 really seen cosmological B-modes? Were these B-modes formed by primordial gravitational waves? If so does this confirm inflation? Does it tell us anything more specific about inflation? Does it support the multiverse?