Photon-photon interactions as a source of CMB circular polarization
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
2013-04-04 v4 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
Photon-photon interactions mediated by the neutral hydrogen background can transform plane polarization into circular polarization, through completely forward processes, [gamma+gamma+atom-> gamma+ gamma+atom], in which only the photon polarizations are changed. The ratio of circular to plane polarization intensities is predicted to be at the level of several times 10^{-5} for some regions of angular size less than 1/300 and with large plane polarizations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1205.4969,
title = {Photon-photon interactions as a source of CMB circular polarization},
author = {R. F. Sawyer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.4969},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
Incorrect coefficient in eq.7. Effects smaller than as advertised. (too small to be of interest??)