Related papers: Variable-delay Polarization Modulators for the CLA…
(Abridged) Despite the great success of precision cosmology, cosmologists cannot fully explain the initial conditions of the Universe. Inflation, an exponential expansion in the first 10^-36s, is a promising potential explanation. A generic…
The quest for primordial $B$-mode polarization signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a major goal of contemporary cosmology. Detecting these signatures would confirm primordial gravitational waves and allow precise…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies exhibit a large-scale dipolar power asymmetry. To determine whether this is due to a real, physical modulation or is simply a large statistical fluctuation requires the…
Future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) satellite missions aim to use the $B$ mode polarization to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ with a sensitivity of about $10^{-3}$. Achieving this goal will not only require sufficient detector…
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…
Studying the polarization and spectral distortion of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in tandem with intensity fluctuations of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) allows us to verify our assumptions on cosmic inflation and investigate…
High-resolution spectropolarimetry is a useful astronomical technique, in particular to study stellar magnetic fields. It has been extensively used in the past but mostly in the visible range. Space missions equipped with high-resolution…
Phase modulators are commonly used devices in optics. Free-space phase modulators are typically constructed from optically anisotropic crystals exhibiting the Pockels effect. To preserve the light's polarization state as it propagates…
Fluctuations in the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe each contain clues about the nature of the earliest moments of time. The next generation of…
The curl (B) modes of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropies are a unique probe of the primordial background of inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). Unfortunately, the B-mode polarization anisotropies generated by…
Taking advantage of the advances in array detector technology, an imaging polarimeter (IMPOL) has been constructed for measuring linear polarization in the wavelength band from 400-800 nm. It makes use of a Wollaston prism as the analyser…
The primary source of systematic uncertainty in the quest for the B-mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) introduced by primordial gravitational waves is polarized thermal emission from Galactic dust. Therefore,…
We compute the polarization power spectra for global strings, monopoles, textures and nontopological textures, and compare them to inflationary models. We find that topological defect models predict a significant (1 microK) contribution to…
The Earth's magnetic field induces Zeeman splitting of the magnetic dipole transitions of molecular oxygen in the atmosphere, which produces polarized emission in the millimeter-wave regime. This polarized emission is primarily circularly…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments generally infer a temperature fluctuation from a measured intensity fluctuation through the first term in the Taylor expansion of the Planck function, the relation between the intensity in a…
The primordial anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are linearly polarized via Compton-scattering. The Faraday conversion process during the propagation of polarized CMB photons through regions of the large-scale structure…
Primordial gravitational waves leave a characteristic imprint on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in the form of $B$-mode polarization. Photons are also deflected by large scale gravitational waves which intervene between the source…
The B-modes of polarization at frequencies ranging from 50-1000 GHz are produced by Galactic dust, lensing of primordial E-modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by intervening large scale structure, and possibly by primordial…
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…
We present a Gaussianity test of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization by analyzing the statistics of unpolarized points in the sky, classified into three distinct types: saddles, comets, and beaks. This classification of…