arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Gruppuso.
We provide an update on the work of di Serego Alighieri (2015), focusing on recent developments regarding constraints on Cosmic Polarization Rotation (CPR), also known as Cosmic Birefringence (CB), derived from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data.
Cosmic Birefringence (CB) is a phenomenon in which the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is rotated as it travels through space due to the coupling between photons and an axion-like field. We look for a solution able to explain the result obtained from the \textit{Planck} Public Release 4 (PR4), which has provided a hint of detection of the CB angle, $α=(0.30\pm0.11)^{\circ}$. In addition to the solutions, already present in the literature, which need a non-negligible evolution in time of the axion-like field during recombination, we find a new region of the parameter space which allows for a nearly constant time evolution of such a field in the same epoch. The latter reinforces the possibility to employ the commonly used relations connecting the observed CMB spectra with the unrotated ones, through trigonometric functions of the CB angle. However, if the homogeneous axion field sourcing isotropic birefringence is almost constant in time during the matter-dominated era, this does not automatically implies that the same holds true also for the associated inhomogeneous perturbations. For this reason, in this paper we present a full generalized Boltzmann treatment of this phenomenon, that is able, for the first time to our knowledge to deal with the time evolution of anisotropic cosmic birefringence (ACB). We employ this approach to provide predictions of ACB, in particular for the set of best-fit parameters found in the new solution of the isotropic case. If the latter is the correct model, we expect an ACB spectrum of the order of $(10^{-15}\div10^{-32})$ deg$^2$ for the auto-correlation, and $(10^{-7}\div10^{-17})$ $μ$K$\cdot\,$deg for the cross-correlations with the CMB $T$ and $E$ fields, depending on the angular scale.
Since the very first observations, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has revealed on large-scales unexpected features known as anomalies, which challenge the standard $Λ$ cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological model. One such anomaly is the "lack-of-correlation", where the measured two-point angular correlation function of CMB temperature anisotropies is compatible with zero, differently from the predictions of the standard model. This anomaly could indicate a deviation from the standard model, unknown systematics, or simply a rare realization of the model itself. In this study, we explore the possibility that the lack-of-correlation anomaly is a consequence of living in a rare realization of the standard model, by leveraging the potential information provided by the cosmological gravitational wave background (CGWB) detectable by future gravitational wave (GW) interferometers. We analyze both constrained and unconstrained realizations of the CGWB to investigate the extent of information that GWs can offer. To quantify the impact of the CGWB on the lack-of-correlation anomaly, we employ established estimators and introduce a new estimator that addresses the "look-elsewhere" effect. Additionally, we consider three different maximum multipoles, denoted as $\ell_{\rm max}$, to account for the anticipated capabilities of future GW detectors ($\ell_{\rm max} = 4, 6, 10$). Summarizing our findings for the case of $\ell_{\rm max} = 4$, we identify the angular range $[63^\circ - 180^\circ]$ as the region where future observations of the CGWB maximize the probability of rejecting the standard model. Furthermore, we calculate the expected significance of this observation, demonstrating that 98.81% (81.67%) of the GW realizations enhance the current significance of the anomaly when considering the full-sky (masked) Planck SMICA map as our CMB sky.
Cosmic birefringence is the in-vacuo rotation of the linear polarization plane experienced by photons of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation when theoretically well-motivated parity-violating extensions of Maxwell electromagnetism are considered. If the angle, parametrizing such a rotation is dependent on the photon's direction, then this phenomenon is called Anisotropic Cosmic Birefringence (ACB). In this paper, we perform for the first time a tomographic treatment of the ACB, by considering photons emitted both at the recombination and reionization epoch. This allows one to extract additional and complementary information about the physical source of cosmic birefringence with respect to the isotropic case. We focus here on the case of an axion-like field $χ$, whose coupling with the electromagnetic sector induces such a phenomenon, by using an analytical and numerical approach (which involves a modification of the CLASS code). We find that the anisotropic component of cosmic birefringence exhibits a peculiar behavior: an increase of the axion mass implies an enhancement of the anisotropic amplitude, allowing to probe a wider range of masses with respect to the purely isotropic case. Moreover, we show that at large angular scales, the interplay between the reionization and recombination contributions to ACB is sensitive to the axion mass, so that at sufficiently low multipoles, for sufficiently light masses, the reionization contribution overtakes the recombination one, making the tomographic approach to cosmic birefringence a promising tool for investigating the properties of this axion-like field.
Cosmic Birefringence (CB) is the in-vacuo rotation of the linear polarization direction of photons during propagation, caused by parity-violating extensions of Maxwell electromagnetism. We build low resolution CB angle maps using Planck Legacy and NPIPE products and provide for the first time estimates of the cross-correlation spectra $C_L^{αE}$ and $C_L^{αB}$ between the CB and the CMB polarization fields. We also provide updated CB auto-correlation spectra $C_L^{αα}$ as well as the cross-correlation $C_L^{αT}$ with the CMB temperature field. We report constraints by defining the scale-invariant amplitudes $A^{αX} \equiv L(L + 1)C_L^{αX}/2π$, where $X = α, T, E, B$, finding no evidence of CB. In particular, we find $A^{αE} = (-7.8 \pm 5.6)$ nK deg and $A^{αB} = (0.3 \pm 4.0)$ nK deg at 68% C.L..
Parity-violating extensions of Maxwell electromagnetism induce a rotation of the linear polarization plane of photons during propagation. This effect, known as cosmic birefringence, impacts on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations producing a mixing of $E$ and $B$ polarization modes which is otherwise null in the standard scenario. Such an effect is naturally parametrized by a rotation angle which can be written as the sum of an isotropic component $α_0$ and an anisotropic one $δα(\hat{\mathbf{n}})$. In this paper we compute angular power spectra and bispectra involving $δα$ and the CMB temperature and polarization maps. In particular, contrarily to what happens for the cross-spectra, we show that even in absence of primordial cross-correlations between the anisotropic birefringence angle and the CMB maps, there exist non-vanishing three-point correlation functions carrying signatures of parity-breaking physics. Furthermore, we find that such angular bispectra still survive in a regime of purely anisotropic cosmic birefringence, which corresponds to the conservative case of having $α_0=0$. These bispectra represent an additional observable aimed at studying cosmic birefringence and its parity-violating nature beyond power spectrum analyses. They provide also a way to perform consistency checks for specific models of cosmic birefringence. Moreover, we estimate that among all the possible birefringent bispectra, $\langleδα\, TB\rangle$ and $\langleδα\,EB\rangle$ are the ones which contain the largest signal-to-noise ratio. Once the cosmic birefringence signal is taken to be at the level of current constraints, we show that these bispectra are within reach of future CMB experiments, as LiteBIRD.
This is a solicited whitepaper for the Snowmass 2021 community planning exercise. The paper focuses on measurements and science with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The CMB is foundational to our understanding of modern physics and continues to be a powerful tool driving our understanding of cosmology and particle physics. In this paper, we outline the broad and unique impact of CMB science for the High Energy Cosmic Frontier in the upcoming decade. We also describe the progression of ground-based CMB experiments, which shows that the community is prepared to develop the key capabilities and facilities needed to achieve these transformative CMB measurements.
We study the propagation of a specific class of instrumental systematics to the reconstruction of the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We focus on the non-idealities of the half-wave plate (HWP), a polarization modulator that is to be deployed by future CMB experiments, such as the phase-A satellite mission LiteBIRD. We study the effects of non-ideal HWP properties, such as transmittance, phase shift, and cross-polarization. To this end, we developed a simple, yet stand-alone end-to-end simulation pipeline adapted to LiteBIRD. We analyzed the effects of a possible mismatch between the measured frequency profiles of HWP properties (used in the mapmaking stage of the pipeline) and the actual profiles (used in the sky-scanning step). We simulated single-frequency, CMB-only observations to emphasize the effects of non-idealities on the BB power spectrum. We also considered multi-frequency observations to account for the frequency dependence of HWP properties and the contribution of foreground emission. We quantified the systematic effects in terms of a bias $Δr$ on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, with respect to the ideal case without systematic effects. We derived the accuracy requirements on the measurements of HWP properties by requiring $Δr < 10^{-5}$ (1% of the expected LiteBIRD sensitivity on $r$). Our analysis is introduced by a detailed presentation of the mathematical formalism employed in this work, including the use of the Jones and Mueller matrix representations.
We present a demonstration of the in-flight polarization angle calibration for the JAXA/ISAS second strategic large class mission, LiteBIRD, and estimate its impact on the measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio parameter, r, using simulated data. We generate a set of simulated sky maps with CMB and polarized foreground emission, and inject instrumental noise and polarization angle offsets to the 22 (partially overlapping) LiteBIRD frequency channels. Our in-flight angle calibration relies on nulling the EB cross correlation of the polarized signal in each channel. This calibration step has been carried out by two independent groups with a blind analysis, allowing an accuracy of the order of a few arc-minutes to be reached on the estimate of the angle offsets. Both the corrected and uncorrected multi-frequency maps are propagated through the foreground cleaning step, with the goal of computing clean CMB maps. We employ two component separation algorithms, the Bayesian-Separation of Components and Residuals Estimate Tool (B-SeCRET), and the Needlet Internal Linear Combination (NILC). We find that the recovered CMB maps obtained with algorithms that do not make any assumptions about the foreground properties, such as NILC, are only mildly affected by the angle miscalibration. However, polarization angle offsets strongly bias results obtained with the parametric fitting method. Once the miscalibration angles are corrected by EB nulling prior to the component separation, both component separation algorithms result in an unbiased estimation of the r parameter. While this work is motivated by the conceptual design study for LiteBIRD, its framework can be broadly applied to any CMB polarization experiment. In particular, the combination of simulation plus blind analysis provides a robust forecast by taking into account not only detector sensitivity but also systematic effects.
We present a novel formalism to describe the $in$ $vacuo$ conversion between polarization states of propagating radiation, also known as generalized Faraday effect (GFE), in a cosmological context. Thinking of GFE as a potential tracer of new, isotropy- and/or parity-violating physics, we apply our formalism to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarized anisotropy power spectra, providing a simple framework to easily compute their observed modifications. In so doing, we re-interpret previously known results, namely the $in$ $vacuo$ rotation of the linear polarization plane of CMB photons (or cosmic birefringence) but also point out that GFE could lead to the partial conversion of linear into circular polarization. We notice that GFE can be seen as an effect of light propagating in an anisotropic and/or chiral medium (a "dark crystal") and recast its parameters as the components of an effective "cosmic susceptibility tensor". For a wave number-independent susceptibility tensor, this allows us to set an observational bound on a GFE-induced CMB circularly polarized power spectrum, or $VV$, at $C_{\ell}^{VV} < 2 \times 10^{-5} μK^2$ (95 \% C.L.), at its peak $\ell\simeq 370$, which is some 3 orders of magnitude better than presently available direct $VV$ measurements. We argue that, unless dramatic technological improvements will arise in direct $V$-modes measurements, cosmic variance-limited linear polarization surveys expected within this decade should provide, as a byproduct, superior bounds on GFE-induced circular polarization of the CMB.
We present an assessment of the CMB large scale anomalies in polarisation using the two-point correlation function as a test case. We employ the state of the art of large scale polarisation datasets: the first based on a Planck 2018 HFI 100 and 143 GHz cross-spectrum analysis, based on SRoll2 processing, and the second from a map-based approach derived through a joint treatment of Planck 2018 LFI and WMAP-9yr. We consider the well-known $S_{1/2}$ estimator, which measures the distance of the two-point correlation function from zero at angular scales larger than $60^{\circ}$, and rely on realistic simulations for both datasets to assess confidence intervals. By focusing on the pure polarisation field described by either the $Q$ and $U$ Stokes parameters or by the local $E-$modes, we show that the first description is heavily influenced by the quadrupole (which is poorly constrained in both datasets) while the second one is more suited for an analysis containing higher multipoles up to $\ell \sim 10$, limit above which both datasets become markedly noise dominated. We find that both datasets exhibit a lack-of-correlation anomaly in pure polarisation, similar to the one observed in temperature, which is better constrained by the less noisy Planck HFI 100$\times$143 data, where its significance lies at about $99.5\%$. We perform our analysis using realizations that are either constrained or non-constrained by the observed temperature field, and find similar results in the two cases.
Parity-violating extensions of standard electromagnetism produce cosmic birefringence, the in vacuo rotation of the linear polarisation direction of a photon during propagation. We employ {\it Planck} 2018 CMB polarised data to constrain anisotropic birefringence, modeled by its angular power spectrum $C_{\ell}^{αα}$, and the cross-correlation with CMB temperature maps, $C_{\ell}^{αT}$, at scales larger than $\sim$15 degrees. We present joint limits on the scale invariant quantity, $A^{αα} \equiv \ell (\ell +1) \, C_{\ell}^{αα} / 2 π$, and on the analogous amplitude for the cross-correlation, $A^{αT} \equiv \ell (\ell +1) \, C_{\ell}^{αT} / 2 π$. We find no evidence of birefringence within the error budget and obtain $A^{αα} < 0.104 \, \mbox{[deg$^2$]}$ and $A^{αT}=1.50^{+2.41}_{-4.10} \, \mbox{[$μ$K$\cdot$deg] both at } 95 \% \mbox{ C.L.}$. The latter bound appears competitive in constraining a few early dark energy models recently proposed to alleviate the $H_{0}$ tension. Slicing the joint likelihood at $A^{αT}=0$, the bound on $A^{αα}$ becomes tighter at $A^{αα} < 0.085 \, \mbox{[deg$^2$]}$ at 95$\% \mbox{ C.L.}$. In addition we recast the constraints on $A^{αα}$ as a bound on the amplitude of primordial magnetic fields responsible for Faraday rotation, finding $B_{1 {\tiny \mbox{Mpc}}} < 26.9$ nG and $B_{1 {\tiny \mbox{Mpc}}} < 24.3$ nG at 95$\%$ C.L. for the marginalised and sliced case respectively.
A great deal of experimental effort is currently being devoted to the precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky in temperature and polarisation. Satellites, balloon-borne, and ground-based experiments scrutinize the CMB sky at multiple scales, and therefore enable to investigate not only the evolution of the early Universe, but also its late-time physics with unprecedented accuracy. The pipeline leading from time ordered data as collected by the instrument to the final product is highly structured. Moreover, it has also to provide accurate estimates of statistical and systematic uncertainties connected to the specific experiment. In this paper, we review likelihood approaches targeted to the analysis of the CMB signal at different scales, and to the estimation of key cosmological parameters. We consider methods that analyze the data in the spatial (i.e., pixel-based) or harmonic domain. We highlight the most relevant aspects of each approach and compare their performance.
(abridged) We study the impact of the large-angle CMB polarization datasets publicly released by the WMAP and Planck satellites on the estimation of cosmological parameters of the $Λ$CDM model. To complement large-angle polarization, we consider the high-resolution CMB datasets from either WMAP or Planck, as well as CMB lensing as traced by Planck. In the case of WMAP, we compute the large-angle polarization likelihood starting over from low-resolution frequency maps and their covariance matrices, and perform our own foreground mitigation technique, which includes as a possible alternative Planck 353 GHz data to trace polarized dust. We find that the latter choice induces a downward shift in the optical depth $τ$, of order ~$2σ$, robust to the choice of the complementary high-l dataset. When the Planck 353 GHz is consistently used to minimize polarized dust emission, WMAP and Planck 70 GHz large-angle polarization data are in remarkable agreement: by combining them we find $τ= 0.066 ^{+0.012}_{-0.013}$, again very stable against the particular choice for high-$\ell$ data. We find that the amplitude of primordial fluctuations $A_s$, notoriously degenerate with $τ$, is the parameter second most affected by the assumptions on polarized dust removal, but the other parameters are also affected, typically between $0.5$ and $1σ$. In particular, cleaning dust with \planck's 353 GHz data imposes a $1σ$ downward shift in the value of the Hubble constant $H_0$, significantly contributing to the tension reported between CMB based and direct measurements of $H_0$. On the other hand, we find that the appearance of the so-called low $\ell$ anomaly, a well-known tension between the high- and low-resolution CMB anisotropy amplitude, is not significantly affected by the details of large-angle polarization, or by the particular high-$\ell$ dataset employed.
We use the ACTpol published cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization data to constrain cosmological birefringence, a tracer of parity violation beyond the standard model of particle physics. To this purpose, we employ all the polarized ACTpol spectra, including the cross-correlations between temperature anisotropy and B mode polarization (TB) and between E mode and B mode (EB), which are most sensitive to the effect. We build specific, so-called D-estimators for birefringence and assess their performances and error budgets by using realistic Monte Carlo simulations based on the experimental characteristics provided by the ACTpol collaboration. We determine the optimal multipole range for our analysis to be $250 < \ell < 3025$ over which we find a null result for the uniform birefringence angle $α= 0.29^\circ \pm 0.28^\circ$ (stat.) $\pm 0.5^\circ$ (syst.), the latter uncertainty being the estimate published by the ACTpol team on their global systematic error budget. We show that this result holds consistently when other multipole ranges are considered. Finally, we forecast the capability of several forthcoming ground based, balloon and space borne CMB experiments to constrain the birefringence angle, showing, e.g., that the proposed post-Planck COrE satellite mission could in principle constrain $α$ at a level of 10 arcsec, provided that all systematics are under control. Under the same circumstances, we find the COrE constraints to be at least 2 or 3 times better than what could ideally be achieved by the other experiments considered.
We use the 2015 Planck likelihood in combination with the Bicep2/Keck likelihood (BKP and BK14) to constrain the chirality, $χ$, of primordial gravitational waves in a scale-invariant scenario. In this framework, the parameter $χ$ enters theory always coupled to the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, e.g. in combination of the form $χ\cdot r$. Thus, the capability to detect $χ$ critically depends on the value of $r$. We find that with present data set $χ$ is \textit{de facto}unconstrained. We also provide forecasts for $χ$ from future CMB experiments, including COrE+, exploring several fiducial values of $r$. We find that the current limit on $r$ is tight enough to disfavor a neat detection of $χ$. For example, in the unlikely case in which $r\sim0.1(0.05)$, the maximal chirality case, i.e. $χ= \pm1$, could be detected with a significance of $\sim2.5(1.5)σ$ at best. We conclude that the two-point statistics at the basis of CMB likelihood functions is currently unable to constrain chirality and may only provide weak limits on $χ$ in the most optimistic scenarios. Hence, it is crucial to investigate the use of other observables, e.g. provided by higher order statistics, to constrain these kind of parity violating theories with the CMB.
We present a brief review of the main results of the Planck 2015 release describing the new calibration of the data, showing the maps delivered in temperature and, for the first time, in polarization, the cosmological parameters and the lensing potential. In addition we present a forecast of the Galactic foregrounds in polarization. Future satellite experiments will have the challenge to remove the foregrounds with great accuracy to be able to measure a tensor-to-scalar ratio of less than 0.01.
Parity violating physics beyond the standard model of particle physics induces a rotation of the linear polarization of photons. This effect, also known as cosmological birefringence (CB), can be tested with the observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies which are linearly polarized at the level of $5-10\%$. In particular CB produces non-null CMB cross correlations between temperature and B mode-polarization, and between E- and B-mode polarization. Here we study the properties of the so called D-estimators, often used to constrain such an effect. After deriving the framework of both frequentist and Bayesian analysis, we discuss the interplay between birefringence and weak-lensing, which, albeit parity conserving, modifies pre-existing TB and EB cross correlation.