English

Constraining primordial magnetic fields with CMB polarization experiments

Astrophysics 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We calculate the effect that a primordial homogeneous magnetic field, \B0\B_0, will have on the different CMB power spectra due to Faraday rotation. Concentrating on the TBTB, EBEB and BBBB correlations, we forecast the ability for future CMB polarization experiments to constrain \B0\B_0. Our results depend on how well the foregrounds can be subtracted from the CMB maps, but we find a predicted error between σ\B0=4×1011\sigma_{\B_0} = 4 \times 10^{-11}Gauss (for the QUIET experiment with foregrounds perfectly subtracted) and 3×10103 \times 10^{-10}Gauss (with the Clover experiment with no foreground subtraction). These constraints are two orders of magnitudes better than the present limits on \B0\B_0.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0803.3210,
  title  = {Constraining primordial magnetic fields with CMB polarization experiments},
  author = {Jostein R. Kristiansen and Pedro G. Ferreira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.3210},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

9 pages, 7 figures. Extended results section. Typos corrected. Corresponds to version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:23:34.701Z