Is cosmic birefringence due to dark energy or dark matter? A tomographic approach

Abstract

A pseudoscalar "axionlike" field, $\varphi$, may explain the $3\sigma$ hint of cosmic birefringence observed in the $EB$ power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization data. Is $\varphi$ dark energy or dark matter? A tomographic approach can answer this question. The effective mass of dark energy field responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe today must be smaller than $m_{\varphi }\simeq 10^{-33}$ eV. If $m_{\varphi }\gtrsim 10^{-32}$ eV, $\varphi$ starts evolving before the epoch of reionization and we should observe different amounts of birefringence from the $EB$ power spectrum at low ($l\lesssim 10$) and high multipoles. Such an observation, which requires a full-sky satellite mission, would rule out $\varphi$ being dark energy. If $m_{\varphi }\gtrsim 10^{-28}$ eV, $\varphi$ starts oscillating during the epoch of recombination, leaving a distinct signature in the $EB$ power spectrum at high multipoles, which can be measured precisely by ground-based CMB observations. Our tomographic approach relies on the shape of the $EB$ power spectrum and is less sensitive to miscalibration of polarization angles.

11 pages, 12 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Improved Constraints on Cosmic Birefringence from the WMAP and Planck Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Data
• Isotropic cosmic birefringence from early dark energy
• Power spectrum of domain-wall network and its implications for isotropic and anisotropic cosmic birefringence
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• Probing Axions via Light Circular Polarization and Event Horizon Telescope
• Impact of Anisotropic Birefringence on Measuring Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing