Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization

Abstract

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy is our richest source of cosmological information; the standard cosmological model was largely established thanks to study of the temperature anisotropies. By the end of the decade, the Planck satellite will close this important chapter and move us deeper into the new frontier of polarization measurements. Numerous ground--based and balloon--borne experiments are already forging into this new territory. Besides providing new and independent information on the primordial density perturbations and cosmological parameters, polarization measurements offer the potential to detect primordial gravity waves, constrain dark energy and measure the neutrino mass scale. A vigorous experimental program is underway worldwide and heading towards a new satellite mission dedicated to CMB polarization.

Review given at TAUP 2005; References added; Additional references

References in corpus (4)

• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications
• Cosmological parameter analysis including SDSS Ly-alpha forest and galaxy bias: constraints on the primordial spectrum of fluctuations, neutrino mass, and dark energy
• DASI Three-Year Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Results
• First measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation at small angular scales from CAPMAP

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Characterization of a broad energy germanium detector and application to neutrinoless double beta decay search in Ge-76