E and B polarizations from inhomogeneous and solar surface turbulence

Abstract

Gradient- and curl-type or E- and B-type polarizations have been routinely analyzed to study the physics contributing to the cosmic microwave background polarization and galactic foregrounds. They characterize the parity-even and parity-odd properties of the underlying physical mechanisms, for example hydromagnetic turbulence in the case of dust polarization. Here we study spectral correlation functions characterizing the parity-even and parity-odd parts of linear polarization for homogeneous and inhomogeneous turbulence to show that only the inhomogeneous helical case can give rise to a parity-odd polarization signal. We also study nonhelical turbulence and suggest that a strong nonvanishing (here negative) skewness of the E polarization is responsible for an enhanced ratio of the EE to the BB (quadratic) correlation in both helical and nonhelical cases. This could explain the enhanced EE/BB ratio observed recently for dust polarization. We close with a preliminary assessment of using linear polarization of the Sun to characterize its helical turbulence without being subjected to the pi ambiguity that magnetic inversion techniques have to address.

arXiv comment11 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, ApJ, in press

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• hammurabi X: Simulating Galactic Synchrotron Emission with Random Magnetic Fields
• The turbulent stress spectrum in the inertial and subinertial ranges
• The link between E-B polarization modes and gas column density from interstellar dust emission
• Batchelor, Saffman, and Kazantsev spectra in galactic small-scale dynamos
• Ambipolar diffusion in large Prandtl number turbulence
• A global two-scale helicity proxy from $\pi$-ambiguous solar magnetic fields
• Helicity proxies from linear polarisation of solar active regions
• The effect of cosmic variance on the characteristics of dust polarization power spectra
• Application of a helicity proxy to edge-on galaxies
• Hemispheric handedness in the Galactic synchrotron polarization foreground
• Obtaining strength of magnetic field from E and B modes of dust polarization
• Magnetic field evolution in solar-type stars
• Statistical signatures of interstellar turbulence in dust polarization maps