Related papers: Nonlinear electrodynamics and CMB polarization
We provide a fresh look at the cosmological constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) that couple predominantly to photons, focusing on lifetimes $\tau_{a} \lesssim 10^{4}\, {\rm s}$ and masses $m_a\lesssim 10\,{\rm GeV}$. We consider Big…
We have developed a correlation radiometer at 33 GHz devoted to the search for residual polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The two instruments`s outputs are linear combination of two Stokes Parameters (Q and U or U and…
We briefly review our work about the polarized foreground contamination of the Cosmic Microwave Background maps. We start by summarizing the main properties of the polarized cosmological signal, resulting in "electric" (E) and "magnetic"…
Recent literature has shown that photon-photon forward scattering mediated by Euler-Heisenberg interactions may generate some amount of the circular polarization ($V$ modes) in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. However, there…
The circular polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is usually taken to be zero since it is not generated by Thomson scattering. Here we explore the actual level of circular polarization in the CMB generated by conventional…
Polarization of the cosmic microwave background, though not yet detected, provides a source of information about cosmological parameters complementary to temperature fluctuations. This paper provides a complete theoretical treatment of…
The role of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation data in constraining the presence of primordial isocurvature modes is examined. While the MAP satellite mission will be unable to simultaneously constrain isocurvature modes and…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies probe the primordial density field at the edge of the observable Universe. There is a limiting precision (``cosmic variance'') with which anisotropies can determine the amplitude of primordial…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) encodes information about the content and evolution of the universe. The presence of light, weakly interacting particles impacts the expansion history of the early universe, which alters the temperature…
The fine-structure constant, $\alpha$, controls the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. There are extensions of the standard model in which $\alpha$ is dynamical on cosmological length and time-scales. The physics of the cosmic…
We summarize the physical mechanism by which the Cosmic Microwave Background acquires a small degree of polarization. We discuss the imprint left by gravitational waves and the use of polarization as a test of the inflationary paradigm. We…
Correlations of polarization components in the coordinate frame are a natural basis for searches of parity-violating modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This fact can be exploited to build estimators of parity-violating modes…
Weak gravitational lensing by the intervening large-scale structure of the Universe induces high-order correlations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization fields. We construct minimum variance estimators of…
Polarized foregrounds are going to be a serious challenge for detecting CMB cosmological B-modes. Both diffuse Galactic emission and extragalactic sources contribute significantly to the power spectrum on large angular scales. At low…
Precise polarisation measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) require accurate knowledge of the instrument orientation relative to the sky frame used to define the cosmological Stokes parameters. Suitable celestial calibration…
We present an upper limit on the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background at 7 degree angular scales in the frequency band between 26 and 36 GHz, produced by the POLAR experiment. The campaign produced a map of linear polarization…
Measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation are expected to significantly increase our understanding of the early universe. We present a design for a CMB polarimeter in which a cryogenically cooled…
Parity-violating extensions of Maxwell electromagnetism induce a rotation of the linear polarization plane of photons during propagation. This effect, known as cosmic birefringence, impacts on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)…
The precision of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments, specifically its lensing reconstruction, has reached the limit where non-linear corrections cannot be ignored. Neglecting these corrections results in biased constraints on…
Tangled, primordial cosmic magnetic fields create small rotational velocity perturbations on the last scattering surface (LSS) of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). For fields which redshift to a present value of $B_0 =…