How much can we learn about the physics of inflation?

The recent BICEP2 measurement of B modes in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background suggests that inflation was driven by a field at an energy scale of 2 × 10(16) GeV. I explore the potential of upcoming cosmic microwave radiation polarization experiments to further constrain the physics underlying inflation. If the signal is confirmed, then two sets of experiments covering a large area will shed light on inflation. Low-resolution measurements can pin down the tensor to scalar ratio at the percent level, thereby distinguishing models from one another. A high angular resolution experiment will be necessary to measure the tilt of the tensor spectrum, testing the consistency relation that relates the tilt to the amplitude.