Nonlinear electrodynamics and CMB polarization

H. J. Mosquera Cuesta; G. Lambiase

doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2011/03/033

paper

Nonlinear electrodynamics and CMB polarization

arXiv:1102.3092 · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2011/03/033

Abstract

Recently WMAP and BOOMERanG experiments have set stringent constraints on the polarization angle of photons propagating in an expanding universe: $Δ α = (- 2.4 \pm 1.9)^{\circ}$ . The polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) is reviewed in the context of nonlinear electrodynamics (NLED). We compute the polarization angle of photons propagating in a cosmological background with planar symmetry. For this purpose, we use the Pagels-Tomboulis (PT) Lagrangian density describing NLED, which has the form $L \sim (X / Λ^{4})^{δ - 1} X$ , where $X = 1/4 F_{α β} F^{α β}$ , and $δ$ the parameter featuring the non-Maxwellian character of the PT nonlinear description of the electromagnetic interaction. After looking at the polarization components in the plane orthogonal to the ( $x$ )-direction of propagation of the CMB photons, the polarization angle is defined in terms of the eccentricity of the universe, a geometrical property whose evolution on cosmic time (from the last scattering surface to the present) is constrained by the strength of magnetic fields over extragalactic distances.

17 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, references added

Nonlinear electrodynamics and CMB polarization

Abstract

References in corpus (94)

Cited by in corpus (10)