Related papers: Visualizing the Invisible using Polarisation Obser…
Does gravity affect the polarization of electromagnetic radiation in an observable way? The effect of gravity on the observed polarization of a ray of electromagnetic radiation is investigated for an arbitrary 4-dimensional spacetime and…
We model the effect of photon and ultra-light pseudoscalar mixing on the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through the extragalactic medium. The medium is modelled as a large number of magnetic domains, uncorrelated with one another.…
We revisit the classification of polarization observables of the cosmic microwave background. There exists a unified approach to the $3 \times 3$ density matrix by which intensity, linear and circular polarization are treated on an equal…
Magnetic fields are observed everywhere in the universe. In this review, we concentrate on the observational aspects of the magnetic fields of Galactic and extragalactic objects. Readers can follow the milestones in the observations of…
Understanding the interaction of primordial gravitational waves (GWs) with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) plasma is important for observational cosmology. In this article, we provide an analysis of an effect apparently overlooked as…
The observation of the polarization emerging from a rotating star at different phases opens up the possibility to map the magnetic field in the stellar surface thanks to the well-known Zeeman Doppler Imaging. When the magnetic field is…
Extremely strong magnetic fields change the vacuum index of refraction. Although this polarization dependent effect is small for typical neutron stars, it is large enough to decouple the polarization states of photons traveling within the…
Using spin-weighted decomposition of polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) we show that a particular combination of Stokes $Q$ and $U$ parameters vanishes for primordial fluctuations generated by scalar modes, but does not…
The use of polarimetric techniques is nowadays widespread among solar and stellar astronomers. However, notwithstanding the recommandations that have often been made about the publication of polarimetric results in the astronomical…
XPOL, the first correlation polarimeter at a large millimeter telescope, uses a flexible digital correlator to measure all four Stokes parameters simultaneously, i.e. the total power I, the linear polarization components Q and U, and the…
Magnetic field is ubiquitous in the Universe and it plays essential roles in various astrophysical phenomena, yet its real origin and evolution are poorly known. This article reviews current understanding of magnetic fields in the…
We study the propagation effects of radio waves in a pulsar magnetosphere, composed of relativistic electron-positron pair plasmas streaming along the magnetic field lines and corotating with the pulsar. We critically examine the various…
We study the statistical properties of interstellar dust polarization at high Galactic latitude, using the Stokes parameter Planck maps at 353 GHz. Our aim is to advance the understanding of the magnetized interstellar medium (ISM), and to…
We outline the theory and practice of measuring the four Stokes parameters of spectral lines in emission/absorption observations. We apply these concepts to our Arecibo HI absorption line data and present the results. We include a detailed…
Strong, globally-organized magnetic fields are found for a small fraction of O, B, and A stars. At the same time, many theoretical and indirect observational studies suggested ubiquitous presence of weak localized magnetic fields at the…
Interstellar polarization from aligned dust grains can be measured both in transmission at visible and near-infrared wavelengths and in emission at far-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. These observations can help predict the behavior of…
Before using 3D MHD simulations of the solar photosphere in the determination of elemental abundances, one has to ensure that the correct amount of magnetic flux is present in the simulations. The presence of magnetic flux modifies the…
The measurement of non-zero polarization can be used to infer the presence of departures from spherical symmetry in supernovae (SNe). The origin of the majority of the intrinsic polarization observed in SNe is in electron scattering, which…
In addition to its potential to probe the Inflationary cosmological paradigm, millimeter-wave polarimetry is a powerful tool for studying the Milky Way galaxy's composition and magnetic field structure. Towards this end, presented here are…
The Mueller-Stokes formalism which governs conventional polarization optics is formulated for plane waves, and thus the only qualification one could demand of a $4\times 4$ real matrix $M$ in order that it qualifies to be the Mueller matrix…