Related papers: The conventions for the polarization angle
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…
We calculate the large scale polarization of the cosmic microwave background induced by the anisotropy of the spatial geometry of our universe. Assuming an eccentricity at decoupling of about $0.64 10^{-2}$, we find $\Delta T_{pol}/ T_0…
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…
Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) is a bolometric polarimeter designed to measure the inflationary B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at degree angular scales. During three seasons of…
Unification of gravity with quantum mechanics is still a terra incognita. Photon polarization measurements offer a unique window for probing the interaction between these two fundamental forces. We have revealed that non-reciprocity in the…
Observations of quasars show that the polarization position angle of the emission coming from them varies greatly over time, including periods called rotations during which the angle changes in an orderly manner. The study proposes a method…
X-ray Polarimetry is almost as old as X-ray Astronomy. Since the first discovery of X-ray sources theoretical analysis suggested that a high degree of linear polarization could be expected due either to the, extremely non thermal, emission…
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…
The circular polarization of gravitational waves is a powerful observable to test parity violation in gravity and to distinguish between the primordial or the astrophysical origin of the stochastic background. This property comes from the…
I discuss the physics of polarization in models with early reionization. For sufficiently high optical depth to recombination the polarization is boosted on large scales while it is suppressed on smaller scales. New peaks appear in the…
The angle of rotation of any target about the radar line of sight (LOS) is known as the polarization orientation angle. The orientation angle is found to be non-zero for undulating terrains and man-made targets oriented away from the radar…
We quantify the level of polarization of the atmosphere due to Zeeman splitting of oxygen in the Earth's magnetic field and compare it to the level of polarization expected from the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.…
With polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) now detected, and confirmed by several independent experiments, the next goal is to characterise accurately its statistical properties. In these lecture notes we review the physical…
Polarization in stars was first predicted by Chandrasekhar [1] who calculated a substantial linear polarization at the stellar limb for a pure electron-scattering atmosphere. This polarization will average to zero when integrated over a…
We question the global universe isotropy by probing the alignment of local structures in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The original method proposed relies on a steerable wavelet decomposition of the CMB signal on the…
We present the first interferometric polarization map of the W51 e1/e2 molecular cores obtained with the BIMA array at 1.3 mm wavelength with approximately 3 arcsecond resolution. The polarization angle varies smoothly across the double…
Electron scattering induces a polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal measured in the direction of a galaxy cluster due to the presence of a quadrupole component in the CMB temperature distribution. Measuring the…
Polarization induced by cosmological scalar perturbations leads to a typical anisotropy pattern, which can best be analyzed in Fourier domain. This allows one to unambiguously distinguish cosmological signal of polarization from other…
The study of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is still in a pioneering stage, but promises to bring a huge advancement in cosmology in the near future, just as high-accuracy observations of the anisotropies in the total…
We describe the design and performance of a microwave polarimeter used to make precision measurements of polarized astrophysical radiation in three microwave frequency bands spanning 26-36 GHz. The instrument uses cooled HEMT amplifiers in…