Birefringence, CMB polarization, and magnetized B-mode

Journal Article · Wed Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.79.087301· OSTI ID:21308375

Giovannini, Massimo ^[1]; Kunze, Kerstin E ^[1]

---

1. Department of Physics, Theory Division, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland)

Even in the absence of a sizable tensor contribution, a B-mode polarization can be generated because of the competition between a pseudoscalar background and predecoupling magnetic fields. By investigating the dispersion relations of a magnetoactive plasma supplemented by a pseudoscalar interaction, the total B-mode polarization is shown to depend not only upon the plasma and Larmor frequencies but also on the pseudoscalar rotation rate. If the (angular) frequency channels of a given experiment are larger than the pseudoscalar rotation rate, the only possible source of (frequency-dependent) B-mode autocorrelations must be attributed to Faraday rotation. In the opposite case the pseudoscalar contribution dominates and the total rate becomes, in practice, frequency independent. The B-mode cross correlations can be used, under certain conditions, to break the degeneracy by disentangling the two birefringent contributions.

• OSTI ID: 21308375
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 79; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BIREFRINGENCE
CORRELATIONS
DISPERSION RELATIONS
FARADAY EFFECT
FREQUENCY DEPENDENCE
INTERACTIONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA
POLARIZATION
ROTATION