Gravitational Wave Induced Large-scale Polarization of \\Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Abstract

We discuss the contribution of gravitational wave to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) anisotropy and polarization. It is found that the large-scale polarization of CMBR is less than 1\% for a standard recombination universe. The effect of matter reionization will enhance the CMBR polarization to a 10\% level. We have computed the CMBR polarization for two extreme cases (not absolutely ruled out) and found that further enhancement of the ratio is possible. We conclude that measuring the polarization of CMBR on large-angular scales can probe the ionization history of the early universe, set constraints on baryon density and the spectral index of the gravitational waves.

12 pages, LaTex, 2 figures available upon request, IP-ASTP-10-94

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