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Register a new userCosmic Polarization Rotation: an Astrophysical Test of Fundamental Physics
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Sperello di Serego Alighieri
Publication date
2015
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Sperello di Serego Alighieri
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Possible violations of fundamental physical principles, e.g. the Einstein equivalence prin- ciple on which all metric theories of gravity are based, including general relativity (GR), would lead to a rotation of the plane of polarization for linearly polarized radiation traveling over cosmological distances, the so-called cosmic polarization rotation (CPR). We review here the astrophysical tests which have been carried out so far to check if CPR exists. These are using the radio and ultraviolet polarization of radio galaxies and the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (both E-mode and B-mode). These tests so far have been negative, leading to upper limits of the order of one degree on any CPR angle, thereby increasing our confidence in those physical principles, including GR. We also discuss future prospects in detecting CPR or improving the constraints on it.
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We review the methods used to test for the existence of cosmological birefringence, i.e. a rotation of the plane of linear polarization for electromagnetic radiation traveling over cosmological distances, which might arise in a number of important contexts involving the violation of fundamental physical principles. The main methods use: (1) the radio polarization of radio galaxies and quasars, (2) the ultraviolet polarization of radio galaxies, and (3) the cosmic microwave background polarization. We discuss the main results obtained so far, the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and future prospects.
STPpol, POLARBEAR and BICEP2 have recently measured the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization in various sky regions of several tens of square degrees and obtained BB power spectra in the multipole range 20-3000, detecting the components due to gravitational lensing and to inflationary gravitational waves. We analyze jointly the results of these three experiments and propose modifications of their analysis of the spectra to include in the model, in addition to the gravitational lensing and the inflationary gravitational waves components, also the effects induced by the cosmic polarization rotation (CPR), if it exists within current upper limits. Although in principle our analysis would lead also to new constraints on CPR, in practice these can only be given on its fluctuations <{delta}{alpha}^2>, since constraints on its mean angle are inhibited by the de-rotation which is applied by current CMB polarization experiments, in order to cope with the insufficient calibration of the polarization angle. The combined data fits from all three experiments (with 29% CPR-SPTpol correlation, depending on theoretical model) gives constraint <{delta}{alpha}^2>^1/2 < 27.3 mrad (1.56{deg}) with r = 0.194 pm 0.033. These results show that the present data are consistent with no CPR detection and the constraint on CPR fluctuation is about 1.5{deg}. This method of constraining the cosmic polarization rotation is new, is complementary to previous tests, which use the radio and optical/UV polarization of radio galaxies and the CMB E-mode polarization, and adds a new constraint for the sky areas observed by SPTpol, POLARBEAR and BICEP2.
The theory of general relativity, for which we celebrate the centennial at this Symposium, is based on the Einstein equivalence principle. This principle could be violated through a pseudoscalar-photon interaction, which would also produce a rotation of the polarization angle for radiation traveling over very long distances. Therefore, if we could show that this cosmic polarization rotation does not exist, our confindence in general relativity would be greatly increased. We review here the astrophysical searches for cosmic polarization rotation, which have been made in the past 26 years using the polarization of radio galaxies and of the cosmic microwave background. So far no rotation has been detected within about 1 degree. We discuss current problems and future prospects for cosmic polarization rotation measurements.
High-energy cosmic neutrinos can reveal new fundamental particles and interactions, probing energy and distance scales far exceeding those accessible in the laboratory. This white paper describes the outstanding particle physics questions that high-energy cosmic neutrinos can address in the coming decade. A companion white paper discusses how the observation of cosmic neutrinos can address open questions in astrophysics. Tests of fundamental physics using high-energy cosmic neutrinos will be enabled by detailed measurements of their energy spectrum, arrival directions, flavor composition, and timing.
[Abridged] Recent results from the BICEP, Keck Array and Planck Collaborations demonstrate that Galactic foregrounds are an unavoidable obstacle in the search for evidence of inflationary gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization. Beyond the foregrounds, the effect of lensing by intervening large-scale structure further obscures all but the strongest inflationary signals permitted by current data. With a plethora of ongoing and upcoming experiments aiming to measure these signatures, careful and self-consistent consideration of experiments foreground- and lensing-removal capabilities is critical in obtaining credible forecasts of their performance. We investigate the capabilities of instruments such as Advanced ACTPol, BICEP3 and Keck Array, CLASS, EBEX10K, PIPER, Simons Array, SPT-3G and SPIDER, and projects as COrE+, LiteBIRD-ext, PIXIE and Stage IV, to clean contamination due to polarized synchrotron and dust from raw multi-frequency data, and remove lensing from the resulting co-added CMB maps (either using iterative CMB-only techniques or through cross-correlation with external data). Incorporating these effects, we present forecasts for the constraining power of these experiments in terms of inflationary physics, the neutrino sector, and dark energy parameters. Made publicly available through an online interface, this tool enables the next generation of CMB experiments to foreground-proof their designs, optimize their frequency coverage to maximize scientific output, and determine where cross-experimental collaboration would be most beneficial. We find that analyzing data from ground, balloon and space instruments in complementary combinations can significantly improve component separation performance, delensing, and cosmological constraints over individual datasets.
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