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Title: Searching for anisotropic cosmic birefringence with polarization data from SPTpol

Journal Article · · Physical Review D

We present a search for anisotropic cosmic birefringence in 500 deg2 of southern sky observed at 150 GHz with the SPTpol camera on the South Pole Telescope. We reconstruct a map of cosmic polarization rotation anisotropies using higher-order correlations between the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) E and B fields. We then measure the angular power spectrum of this map, which is found to be consistent with zero. The non-detection is translated into an upper limit on the amplitude of the scale-invariant cosmic rotation power spectrum, L(L+1)CααL/2π<0.10×10-4 rad2 (0.033 deg2, 95% C.L.). This upper limit can be used to place constraints on the strength of primordial magnetic fields, B1Mpc<17nG (95% C.L.), and on the coupling constant of the Chern-Simons electromagnetic term gaγ<4.0×10-2/HI (95% C.L.), where HI is the inflationary Hubble scale. For the first time, we also cross-correlate the CMB temperature fluctuations with the reconstructed rotation angle map, a signal expected to be non-vanishing in certain theoretical scenarios, and find no detectable signal. We perform a suite of systematics and consistency checks and find no evidence for contamination.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF); Kavli Foundation; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Contributing Organization:
SPT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; PLR-1248097; OPP-1852617; PHY-1125897; GBMF 947; AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; AC02-76SF00515; De-AC02-07CH11359; FT150100074
OSTI ID:
1637634
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1774113; OSTI ID: 1779815
Report Number(s):
arXiv:2006.08061; FERMILAB-PUB-20-264-AE; oai:inspirehep.net:1801217; TRN: US2201646
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Vol. 102, Issue 8; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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