Phys. Rev. D 71, 043006 (2005) [11 pages]

Faraday rotation of the cosmic microwave background polarization by a stochastic magnetic field

Abstract

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Arthur Kosowsky^1,*, Tina Kahniashvili^2,†, George Lavrelashvili^3,‡, and Bharat Ratra^4,§
¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
²Department of Physics, Kansas State University, 116 Cardwell Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA and Center for Plasma Astrophysics, Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, 2A Kazbegi Avenue, GE-0160 Tbilisi, Georgia
³Department of Theoretical Physics, A. Razmadze Mathematical Institute, GE-0193 Tbilisi, Georgia
⁴Department of Physics, Kansas State University, 116 Cardwell Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA

Received 30 September 2004; published 28 February 2005

A primordial cosmological magnetic field induces Faraday rotation of the cosmic microwave background polarization. This rotation produces a curl-type polarization component even when the unrotated polarization possesses only gradient-type polarization, as expected from scalar density perturbations. We compute the angular power spectrum of curl-type polarization arising from small Faraday rotation due to a weak stochastic primordial magnetic field with a power-law power spectrum. The induced polarization power spectrum peaks at arc minute angular scales. Faraday rotation is one of the few cosmological sources of curl-type polarization, along with primordial tensor perturbations, gravitational lensing, and the vector and tensor perturbations induced by magnetic fields; the Faraday rotation signal peaks on significantly smaller angular scales than any of these, with a power spectrum amplitude which can be comparable to that from gravitational lensing. Prospects for detection are briefly discussed.

URL:

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.043006

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevD.71.043006

PACS:

98.70.Vc, 42.25.Ja, 98.80.–k

^*Electronic address: kosowsky@physics.rutgers.edu

^†Electronic address: tinatin@phys.ksu.edu

^‡Electronic address: lavrela@itp.unibe.ch

^§Electronic address: ratra@phys.ksu.edu

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Phys. Rev. D 71, 043006 (2005) [11 pages]

Faraday rotation of the cosmic microwave background polarization by a stochastic magnetic field

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