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Title: POLARBEAR constraints on cosmic birefringence and primordial magnetic fields

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Here, we constrain anisotropic cosmic birefringence using four-point correlations of even-parity E-mode and odd-parity B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background measurements made by the POLARization of the Background Radiation (POLARBEAR) experiment in its first season of observations. We find that the anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal from any parity-violating processes is consistent with zero. The Faraday rotation from anisotropic cosmic birefringence can be compared with the equivalent quantity generated by primordial magnetic fields if they existed. The POLARBEAR nondetection translates into a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limit of 93 nanogauss (nG) on the amplitude of an equivalent primordial magnetic field inclusive of systematic uncertainties. This four-point correlation constraint on Faraday rotation is about 15 times tighter than the upper limit of 1380 nG inferred from constraining the contribution of Faraday rotation to two-point correlations of B-modes measured by Planck in 2015. Metric perturbations sourced by primordial magnetic fields would also contribute to the B-mode power spectrum. Using the POLARBEAR measurements of the B-mode power spectrum (two-point correlation), we set a 95% C.L. upper limit of 3.9 nG on primordial magnetic fields assuming a flat prior on the field amplitude. This limit is comparable to what was found in the Planck 2015 two-point correlation analysis with both temperature and polarization. Finally, we perform a set of systematic error tests and find no evidence for contamination. This work marks the first time that anisotropic cosmic birefringence or primordial magnetic fields have been constrained from the ground at subdegree scales.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Contributing Organization:
Polarbear Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AST-0618398; AST-1212230; 21111002; 26220709; AST-1313319; AST-1501422
OSTI ID:
1393000
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1228421
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, Vol. 92, Issue 12; ISSN 1550-7998
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 232 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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conference January 2009
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Constraining a spatially dependent rotation of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization text January 2009
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First CMB Constraints on Direction-Dependent Cosmological Birefringence from WMAP-7 text January 2012
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Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters text January 2013
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A Joint Analysis of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck Data text January 2015
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Cited By (44)

Planck 2015 results : XXIII. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect-cosmic infrared background correlation journal September 2016
Planck intermediate results : XLIX. Parity-violation constraints from polarization data journal December 2016
The evolution of primordial magnetic fields since their generation journal September 2016
The origin, evolution and signatures of primordial magnetic fields journal May 2016
Probing large-scale magnetism with the cosmic microwave background journal March 2018
Searching for primordial magnetic fields with CMB B -modes journal May 2018
Recent discoveries from the cosmic microwave background: a review of recent progress journal February 2018
Testing chirality of primordial gravitational waves with Planck and future CMB data: no hope from angular power spectra journal July 2016
Parity breaking signatures from a Chern-Simons coupling during inflation: the case of non-Gaussian gravitational waves journal July 2017
Scale-invariant helical magnetic field evolution and the duration of inflation journal December 2017
Constraints on direction-dependent cosmic birefringence from Planck polarization data journal December 2017
CMB weak-lensing beyond the Born approximation: a numerical approach journal February 2018
The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts journal February 2019
Resolved magnetic dynamo action in the simulated intracluster medium journal November 2017
Cosmological magnetic braking and the formation of high-redshift, super-massive black holes journal April 2019
Simultaneous determination of the cosmic birefringence and miscalibrated polarization angles from CMB experiments journal August 2019
Cross-correlation between 21-cm radiation and CMB B modes from the cosmic birefringence in the presence of a light scalar field journal September 2019
Axion and dilaton + metric emerge jointly from an electromagnetic model universe with local and linear response behavior journal October 2016
On Kottler's path: Origin and evolution of the premetric program in gravity and in electrodynamics journal October 2016
Design and Characterization of a Ground-Based Absolute Polarization Calibrator for Use with Polarization Sensitive CMB Experiments journal January 2019
Bicep2/ KECK ARRAY VIII: MEASUREMENT OF GRAVITATIONAL LENSING FROM LARGE-SCALE B -MODE POLARIZATION journal December 2016
Current and Future Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields journal September 2017
Planck 2015 results : XV. Gravitational lensing journal September 2016
Search for primordial symmetry breakings in CMB journal July 2016
The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts text January 2019
Axion and Dilaton + Metric Emerge Jointly from an Electromagnetic Model Universe with Local and Linear Response Behavior book April 2016
Planck 2015 results : VI. LFI mapmaking journal September 2016
Design and characterization of a ground-based absolute polarization calibrator for use with polarization sensitive CMB experiments
  • Navaroli, Martin F.; Crowley, Kevin D.; Teply, Grant P.
  • Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312856
conference July 2018
Planck 2015 results : XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XIX. Constraints on primordial magnetic fields journal September 2016
The origin, evolution and signatures of primordial magnetic fields text January 2015
The evolution of primordial magnetic field since its generation text January 2015
Planck intermediate results. XLIX. Parity-violation constraints from polarization data text January 2016
Testing parity-violating physics from cosmic rotation power reconstruction text January 2016
Current and Future Constraints on Primordial Magnetic Fields text January 2017
CMB weak-lensing beyond the Born approximation: a numerical approach text January 2017
BICEP2 / Keck Array IX: New Bounds on Anisotropies of CMB Polarization Rotation and Implications for Axion-Like Particles and Primordial Magnetic Fields text January 2017
Parity breaking signatures from a Chern-Simons coupling during inflation: the case of non-Gaussian gravitational waves text January 2017
Probing large-scale magnetism with the Cosmic Microwave Background text January 2017
The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts text January 2018
Design and characterization of a ground-based absolute polarization calibrator for use with polarization sensitive CMB experiments text January 2018
Axion Dark Matter Detection with CMB Polarization text January 2019
Future CMB constraints on cosmic birefringence and implications for fundamental physics text January 2019

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