Faraday rotation limits on a primordial magnetic field from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe five-year data
- Department of Physics and McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Kansas State University, 116 Cardwell Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 (United States)
A primordial magnetic field in the early universe will cause Faraday rotation of the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background generated via Compton scattering at the surface of last scattering. This rotation induces a nonzero parity-odd (B-mode) polarization component. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-year data puts an upper limit on the magnitude of the B-polarization power spectrum; assuming that the B-polarization signal is totally due to the Faraday rotation effect, the upper limits on the comoving amplitude of a primordial stochastic magnetic field range from 6x10{sup -8} to 2x10{sup -6} G on a comoving length scale of 1 Mpc, depending on the power spectrum of the magnetic field.
- OSTI ID:
- 21316183
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 80, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.023009; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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