CMB-induced Cluster Polarization as a Cosmological Probe

Abstract

Scattering of the temperature anisotropy quadrupole by free electrons in galaxy clusters leads to a secondary polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations. At low redshifts, the temperature quadrupole contains a significant contribution from the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect associated with the growth of density fluctuations. Using polarization data from a sample of clusters over a wide range in redshift, one can statistically establish the presence of the ISW effect and determine its redshift evolution. Given the strong dependence of the ISW effect on the background cosmology, cluster polarization can eventually be used as a powerful probe of dark energy. As a further application, we also discuss how it might be used to understand the potential lack of power on large scales.

7 pages, 3 figures; to appear in proceedings of the CMBnet meeting, Oxford, February 2003; submitted to New Astronomy

References in corpus (3)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) First Year Observations: TE Polarization
• CMB Polarization towards Clusters as a Probe of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect

Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Kinetic Sunyaev Zeldovich effect in an anisotropic CMB model: measuring low multipoles of the CMB at higher redshifts using intensity and polarization spectral distortions
• Polarized Sunyaev Zel'dovich tomography
• Reconstructing the Thomson Optical Depth due to Patchy Reionization with 21-cm Fluctuation Maps
• CMB Polarization due to Scattering in Clusters
• Probing the largest scale structure in the universe with polarization map of galaxy clusters
• Searching For Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect Beyond Temperature Anisotropies: CMB E-mode Polarization-Galaxy Cross Correlation
• Real space tomography of the primordial Universe with cluster polarization
• Power Spectra of CMB Polarization by Scattering in Clusters
• Testing the Origin of the CMB Large-Angle Correlation Deficit with a Galaxy Imaging Survey
• Novel Cosmological Tests from Combining Galaxy Lensing and the Polarized Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
• Detection likelihood of cluster-induced CMB polarization
• Statistical Imprints of SZ Effects in the Cosmic Microwave Background
• A Search for X-Ray Reionization Signatures from Cross-Correlation of Wmap and ROSAT Rass Data