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

Abstract

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.

Authors:
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Publication Date:
Research Org.:
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 Org.:
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 Org.:
SPT Collaboration
OSTI Identifier:
1637634
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1774113; OSTI ID: 1779815
Report Number(s):
arXiv:2006.08061; FERMILAB-PUB-20-264-AE
Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010; oai:inspirehep.net:1801217; TRN: US2201646
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-07CH11359; PLR-1248097; OPP-1852617; PHY-1125897; GBMF 947; AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; AC02-76SF00515; De-AC02-07CH11359; FT150100074
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review D
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 102; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

Bianchini, F., Wu, W.  L. K., Ade, P.  A. R., Anderson, A.  J., Austermann, J.  E., Avva, J.  S., Balkenhol, L., Baxter, E., Beall, J.  A., Bender, A.  N., Benson, B.  A., Bleem, L.  E., Carlstrom, J.  E., Chang, C.  L., Chaubal, P., Chiang, H.  C., Chou, T.  L., Citron, R., Corbett Moran, C., Crawford, T.  M., Crites, A.  T., de Haan, T., Dobbs, M.  A., Everett, W., Gallicchio, J., George, E.  M., Gilbert, A., Gupta, N., Halverson, N.  W., Henning, J.  W., Hilton, G.  C., Holder, G.  P., Holzapfel, W.  L., Hrubes, J.  D., Huang, N., Hubmayr, J., Irwin, K.  D., Knox, L., Lee, A.  T., Li, D., Lowitz, A., Manzotti, A., McMahon, J.  J., Meyer, S.  S., Millea, M., Mocanu, L.  M., Montgomery, J., Nadolski, A., Natoli, T., Nibarger, J.  P., Noble, G., Novosad, V., Omori, Y., Padin, S., Patil, S., Pryke, C., Reichardt, C.  L., Ruhl, J.  E., Saliwanchik, B.  R., Schaffer, K.  K., Sievers, C., Simard, G., Smecher, G., Stark, A.  A., Story, K.  T., Tucker, C., Vanderlinde, K., Veach, T., Vieira, J.  D., Wang, G., Whitehorn, N., and Yefremenko, V. Searching for anisotropic cosmic birefringence with polarization data from SPTpol. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevd.102.083504.
Bianchini, F., Wu, W.  L. K., Ade, P.  A. R., Anderson, A.  J., Austermann, J.  E., Avva, J.  S., Balkenhol, L., Baxter, E., Beall, J.  A., Bender, A.  N., Benson, B.  A., Bleem, L.  E., Carlstrom, J.  E., Chang, C.  L., Chaubal, P., Chiang, H.  C., Chou, T.  L., Citron, R., Corbett Moran, C., Crawford, T.  M., Crites, A.  T., de Haan, T., Dobbs, M.  A., Everett, W., Gallicchio, J., George, E.  M., Gilbert, A., Gupta, N., Halverson, N.  W., Henning, J.  W., Hilton, G.  C., Holder, G.  P., Holzapfel, W.  L., Hrubes, J.  D., Huang, N., Hubmayr, J., Irwin, K.  D., Knox, L., Lee, A.  T., Li, D., Lowitz, A., Manzotti, A., McMahon, J.  J., Meyer, S.  S., Millea, M., Mocanu, L.  M., Montgomery, J., Nadolski, A., Natoli, T., Nibarger, J.  P., Noble, G., Novosad, V., Omori, Y., Padin, S., Patil, S., Pryke, C., Reichardt, C.  L., Ruhl, J.  E., Saliwanchik, B.  R., Schaffer, K.  K., Sievers, C., Simard, G., Smecher, G., Stark, A.  A., Story, K.  T., Tucker, C., Vanderlinde, K., Veach, T., Vieira, J.  D., Wang, G., Whitehorn, N., & Yefremenko, V. Searching for anisotropic cosmic birefringence with polarization data from SPTpol. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.083504
Bianchini, F., Wu, W.  L. K., Ade, P.  A. R., Anderson, A.  J., Austermann, J.  E., Avva, J.  S., Balkenhol, L., Baxter, E., Beall, J.  A., Bender, A.  N., Benson, B.  A., Bleem, L.  E., Carlstrom, J.  E., Chang, C.  L., Chaubal, P., Chiang, H.  C., Chou, T.  L., Citron, R., Corbett Moran, C., Crawford, T.  M., Crites, A.  T., de Haan, T., Dobbs, M.  A., Everett, W., Gallicchio, J., George, E.  M., Gilbert, A., Gupta, N., Halverson, N.  W., Henning, J.  W., Hilton, G.  C., Holder, G.  P., Holzapfel, W.  L., Hrubes, J.  D., Huang, N., Hubmayr, J., Irwin, K.  D., Knox, L., Lee, A.  T., Li, D., Lowitz, A., Manzotti, A., McMahon, J.  J., Meyer, S.  S., Millea, M., Mocanu, L.  M., Montgomery, J., Nadolski, A., Natoli, T., Nibarger, J.  P., Noble, G., Novosad, V., Omori, Y., Padin, S., Patil, S., Pryke, C., Reichardt, C.  L., Ruhl, J.  E., Saliwanchik, B.  R., Schaffer, K.  K., Sievers, C., Simard, G., Smecher, G., Stark, A.  A., Story, K.  T., Tucker, C., Vanderlinde, K., Veach, T., Vieira, J.  D., Wang, G., Whitehorn, N., and Yefremenko, V. Fri . "Searching for anisotropic cosmic birefringence with polarization data from SPTpol". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.083504. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1637634.
@article{osti_1637634,
title = {Searching for anisotropic cosmic birefringence with polarization data from SPTpol},
author = {Bianchini, F. and Wu, W.  L. K. and Ade, P.  A. R. and Anderson, A.  J. and Austermann, J.  E. and Avva, J.  S. and Balkenhol, L. and Baxter, E. and Beall, J.  A. and Bender, A.  N. and Benson, B.  A. and Bleem, L.  E. and Carlstrom, J.  E. and Chang, C.  L. and Chaubal, P. and Chiang, H.  C. and Chou, T.  L. and Citron, R. and Corbett Moran, C. and Crawford, T.  M. and Crites, A.  T. and de Haan, T. and Dobbs, M.  A. and Everett, W. and Gallicchio, J. and George, E.  M. and Gilbert, A. and Gupta, N. and Halverson, N.  W. and Henning, J.  W. and Hilton, G.  C. and Holder, G.  P. and Holzapfel, W.  L. and Hrubes, J.  D. and Huang, N. and Hubmayr, J. and Irwin, K.  D. and Knox, L. and Lee, A.  T. and Li, D. and Lowitz, A. and Manzotti, A. and McMahon, J.  J. and Meyer, S.  S. and Millea, M. and Mocanu, L.  M. and Montgomery, J. and Nadolski, A. and Natoli, T. and Nibarger, J.  P. and Noble, G. and Novosad, V. and Omori, Y. and Padin, S. and Patil, S. and Pryke, C. and Reichardt, C.  L. and Ruhl, J.  E. and Saliwanchik, B.  R. and Schaffer, K.  K. and Sievers, C. and Simard, G. and Smecher, G. and Stark, A.  A. and Story, K.  T. and Tucker, C. and Vanderlinde, K. and Veach, T. and Vieira, J.  D. and Wang, G. and Whitehorn, N. and Yefremenko, V.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevd.102.083504},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 8,
volume = 102,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

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