Non-Uniform Cosmological Birefringence and Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

Cosmological birefringence, a rotation by an angle $\alpha$ of the polarization of photons as they propagate over cosmological distances, is constrained by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to be $|\alpha |\lesssim 1^{\circ }$ ($1\sigma$) out to redshifts $z\simeq 1100$ for a rotation that is uniform across the sky. However, the rotation angle $\alpha (\theta ,\varphi )$ may vary as a function of position $(\theta ,\varphi )$ on the sky. Here I discuss how a position-dependent rotation can be sought in current and future AGN data. An upper limit $\VEV{α^2}^{1/2} \lesssim 3.7^\circ$ to the scatter in the position-angle--polarization offsets in a sample of only N=9 AGN already constrains the rotation spherical-harmonic coefficients to $(4\pi {)}^{-1/2}{\alpha }_{lm}\lesssim 3.7^{\circ }$ and constrains the power spectrum for $\alpha$ in models where it is a stochastic field. Future constraints can be improved with more sources and by analyzing well-mapped sources with a tensor-harmonic decomposition of the polarization analogous to that used in CMB polarization and weak gravitational lensing.

5 pages.

References in corpus (19)

• Dynamics of dark energy
• Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe
• The Physics of Cosmic Acceleration
• Approaches to Understanding Cosmic Acceleration
• Searching for CPT Violation with Cosmic Microwave Background Data from WMAP and BOOMERANG
• Mapping the Cosmological Expansion
• Parity violation constraints using 2006-2007 QUaD CMB polarization spectra
• Pseudoscalar perturbations and polarization of the cosmic microwave background
• How to De-Rotate the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
• Cosmological CPT violating effect on CMB polarization
• De-Rotation of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization: Full-Sky Formalism
• Constraints on CPT violation from WMAP three year polarization data: a wavelet analysis
• CMB Polarization Systematics, Cosmological Birefringence and the Gravitational Waves Background
• Constraining a spatially dependent rotation of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
• Testing CPT Symmetry with CMB Measurements
• Testing Lorentz Invariance Violation with WMAP Five Year Data
• Testing CPT Symmetry with CMB Measurements: Update after WMAP5
• Limits on Cosmological Birefringence from the Ultraviolet Polarization of Distant Radio Galaxies
• Observing Dark Matter via the Gyromagnetic Faraday Effect

Cited by in corpus (17)

• First CMB Constraints on Direction-Dependent Cosmological Birefringence from WMAP-7
• Self-Calibration of BICEP1 Three-Year Data and Constraints on Astrophysical Polarization Rotation
• Cross-Correlation of Cosmological Birefringence with CMB Temperature
• BICEP2 / Keck Array IX: New Bounds on Anisotropies of CMB Polarization Rotation and Implications for Axion-Like Particles and Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Future CMB constraints on cosmic birefringence and implications for fundamental physics
• Precision Tests of Parity Violation Over Cosmological Distances
• Fluctuations of cosmological birefringence and the effect on CMB B-mode polarization
• WMAP 7 year constraints on CPT violation from large angle CMB anisotropies
• Cosmic birefringence tomography and calibration-independence with reionization signals in the CMB
• Revealing Cosmic Rotation
• Planck intermediate results. XLIX. Parity-violation constraints from polarization data
• Probing axion-like particles with the ultraviolet photon polarization from active galactic nuclei in radio galaxies
• Cosmological birefringence constraints from CMB and astrophysical polarization data
• Cosmic Polarization Rotation: an Astrophysical Test of Fundamental Physics
• Testing parity-violating physics from cosmic rotation power reconstruction
• Constraints on cosmic birefringence using $E$-mode polarisation
• Design and characterization of a ground-based absolute polarization calibrator for use with polarization sensitive CMB experiments