Published April 24, 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

Parity Violation Constraints Using Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Spectra from 2006 and 2007 Observations by the QUaD Polarimeter

  • 1. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
  • 2. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
  • 3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 91109 (United States)
  • 4. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
  • 5. School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queen's Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
  • 6. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 OHE (United Kingdom)
  • 7. Department of Experimental Physics, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, County Kildare (Ireland)
  • 8. Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ (United Kingdom)
  • 9. CENTRA, Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal)
  • 10. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)

Description

We constrain parity-violating interactions to the surface of last scattering using spectra from the QUaD experiment's second and third seasons of observations by searching for a possible systematic rotation of the polarization directions of cosmic microwave background photons. We measure the rotation angle due to such a possible 'cosmological birefringence' to be 0.55 deg. ±0.82 deg. (random) ±0.5 deg. (systematic) using QUaD's 100 and 150 GHz temperature-curl and gradient-curl spectra over the spectra over the multipole range 200<l<2000, consistent with null, and constrain Lorentz-violating interactions to <2x10-43 GeV (68% confidence limit). This is the best constraint to date on electrodynamic parity violation on cosmological scales.

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
102
Journal Issue
16
Journal Page Range
p. 161302-161302.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

INIS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2009 The American Physical Society
Collaborations
QUaD Collaboration