Parity violation constraints using 2006-2007 QUaD CMB polarization spectra
Abstract
We constrain parity-violating interactions to the surface of last scattering using spectra from the QUaD experiment's second and third seasons of observations by searching for a possible systematic rotation of the polarization directions of CMB photons. We measure the rotation angle due to such a possible "cosmological birefringence" to be 0.55 deg. +/- 0.82 deg. (random) +/- 0.5 deg. (systematic) using QUaD's 100 and 150 GHz TB and EB spectra over the multipole range 200 < l < 2000, consistent with null, and constrain Lorentz violating interactions to < 2^-43 GeV (68% confidence limit). This is the best constraint to date on electrodynamic parity violation on cosmological scales.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0811.0618,
title = {Parity violation constraints using 2006-2007 QUaD CMB polarization spectra},
author = {QUaD Collaboration and E. Y. S. Wu and P. Ade and J. Bock and M. Bowden and M. L. Brown and G. Cahill and P. G. Castro and S. Church and T. Culverhouse and R. Friedman and K. Ganga and W. K. Gear and S. Gupta and J. Hinderks and J. Kovac and A. E. Lange and E. Leitch and S. J. Melhuish and Y. Memari and J. A. Murphy and A. Orlando and L. Piccirillo and C. Pryke and N. Rajguru and B. Rusholme and R. Schwarz and C. O'Sullivan and A. N. Taylor and K. L. Thompson and A. H. Turner and M. Zemcov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.0618},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures, accepted to Physical Review Letters. Improved method, updated result and clarified language