Parity Violation Constraints Using Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Spectra from 2006 and 2007 Observations by the QUaD Polarimeter

Journal Article · Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.102.161302· OSTI ID:21316628

Wu, E Y. S.; Church, S; Hinderks, J; Rusholme, B; Thompson, K L ^[1]; Ade, P; Gear, W K; Gupta, S; Rajguru, N; Turner, A H ^[2]; Bock, J; Leitch, E ^[3]; Bowden, M ^[4]; Brown, M L ^[5]; Cahill, G; Murphy, J A; O'Sullivan, C ^[6]; Castro, P G ^[7]; Culverhouse, T; Friedman, R B ^[8]

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1. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
2. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
3. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
4. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queen's Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
5. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 OHE (United Kingdom)
6. Department of Experimental Physics, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, County Kildare (Ireland)
7. CENTRA, Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal)
8. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)

We constrain parity-violating interactions to the surface of last scattering using spectra from the QUaD experiment's second and third seasons of observations by searching for a possible systematic rotation of the polarization directions of cosmic microwave background photons. We measure the rotation angle due to such a possible 'cosmological birefringence' to be 0.55 deg. {+-}0.82 deg. (random) {+-}0.5 deg. (systematic) using QUaD's 100 and 150 GHz temperature-curl and gradient-curl spectra over the spectra over the multipole range 200<l<2000, consistent with null, and constrain Lorentz-violating interactions to <2x10{sup -43} GeV (68% confidence limit). This is the best constraint to date on electrodynamic parity violation on cosmological scales.

• OSTI ID: 21316628
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 16; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.161302; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
BIREFRINGENCE
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
COSMOLOGY
PARITY
PHOTONS
POLARIMETERS
POLARIZATION
RANDOMNESS
RELICT RADIATION
SCATTERING
SPECTRA