Cosmic Birefringence Fluctuations and Cosmic Microwave Background $B$-mode Polarization

Abstract

Recently, BICEP2 measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization has indicated the presence of primordial gravitational waves at degree angular scales, inferring the tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r=0.2$ and a running scalar spectral index. In this {\em Letter}, we show that the existence of the fluctuations of cosmological birefringence can give rise to CMB $B$-mode polarization that fits BICEP2 data with $r<0.11$ and no running of the scalar spectral index. Thus, it might be too hasty to conclude that many inflation models with small $r$ are ruled out based on BICEP2 result.

to match the version to be published in Phys. Lett. B that sets an upper limit on cosmic birefringence. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1307.6298

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• BICEP2 / Keck Array VIII: Measurement of gravitational lensing from large-scale B-mode polarization
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• Implications of the Cosmic Birefringence Measurement for the Axion Dark Matter Search
• Cosmic Birefringence from Monodromic Axion Dark Energy
• Testing CPT Symmetry with Current and Future CMB Measurements
• Exact CMB B-mode power spectrum from anisotropic cosmic birefringence
• Measuring cosmic shear and birefringence using resolved radio sources
• Tomographic constraint on anisotropic cosmic birefringence
• Constraints on Anisotropic Cosmic Birefringence from CMB B-mode Polarization
• BICEP/Keck XXI: Constraints on Early-Universe Parity Violation from Multipole-Dependent Birefringence