POLARBEAR Constraints on Cosmic Birefringence and Primordial Magnetic Fields
Creators: name: POLARBEAR Collaboration
name: Ade, Peter A. R.
name: Arnold, Kam
name: Atlas, Matt
name: Baccigalupi, Carlo
name: Barron, Darcy
name: Boettger, David
name: Borrill, Julian
name: Chapman, Scott
name: Chinone, Yuji
name: Cukierman, Ari
name: Dobbs, Matt
name: Ducout, Anne
name: Dunner, Rolando
name: Elleflot, Tucker
name: Errard, Josquin
name: Fabbian, Giulio
name: Feeney, Stephen
name: Feng, Chang
name: Gilbert, Adam
name: Goeckner-Wald, Neil
name: Groh, John
name: Hall, Grantland
name: Halverson, Nils W.
name: Hasegawa, Masaya
name: Hattori, Kaori
name: Hazumi, Masashi
name: Hill, Charles
name: Holzapfel, William L.
name: Hori, Yasuto
name: Howe, Logan
name: Inoue, Yuki
name: Jaehnig, Gregory C.
name: Jaffe, Andrew H.
name: Jeong, Oliver
name: Katayama, Nobuhiko
name: Kaufman, Jonathan P.
name: Keating, Brian
name: Kermish, Zigmund
name: Keskitalo, Reijo
name: Kisner, Theodore
name: Kusaka, Akito
name: Jeune, Maude Le
name: Lee, Adrian T.
name: Leitch, Erik M.
name: Leon, David
name: Li, Yun
name: Linder, Eric
name: Lowry, Lindsay
name: Matsuda, Frederick
name: Matsumura, Tomotake
name: Miller, Nathan
name: Montgomery, Josh
name: Myers, Michael J.
name: Navaroli, Martin
name: Nishino, Haruki
name: Okamura, Takahiro
name: Paar, Hans
name: Peloton, Julien
name: Pogosian, Levon
name: Poletti, Davide
name: Puglisi, Giuseppe
name: Raum, Christopher
name: Rebeiz, Gabriel
name: Reichardt, Christian L.
name: Richards, Paul L.
name: Ross, Colin
name: Rotermund, Kaja M.
name: Schenck, David E.
name: Sherwin, Blake D.
name: Shimon, Meir
name: Shirley, Ian
name: Siritanasak, Praween
name: Smecher, Graeme
name: Stebor, Nathan
name: Steinbach, Bryan
name: Suzuki, Aritoki
name: Suzuki, Jun-ichi
name: Tajima, Osamu
name: Takakura, Satoru
name: Tikhomirov, Alexei
name: Tomaru, Takayuki
name: Whitehorn, Nathan
name: Wilson, Brandon
name: Yadav, Amit
name: Zahn, Alex
name: Zahn, Oliver
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We constrain anisotropic cosmic birefringence using four-point correlations of even-parity $E$-mode and odd-parity $B$-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background measurements made by the POLARization of the Background Radiation (POLARBEAR) experiment in its first season of observations. We find that the anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal from any parity-violating processes is consistent with zero. The Faraday rotation from anisotropic cosmic birefringence can be compared with the equivalent quantity generated by primordial magnetic fields if they existed. The POLARBEAR nondetection translates into a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limit of 93 nanogauss (nG) on the amplitude of an equivalent primordial magnetic field inclusive of systematic uncertainties. This four-point correlation constraint on Faraday rotation is about 15 times tighter than the upper limit of 1380 nG inferred from constraining the contribution of Faraday rotation to two-point correlations of $B$-modes measured by Planck in 2015. Metric perturbations sourced by primordial magnetic fields would also contribute to the $B$-mode power spectrum. Using the POLARBEAR measurements of the $B$-mode power spectrum (two-point correlation), we set a 95% C.L. upper limit of 3.9 nG on primordial magnetic fields assuming a flat prior on the field amplitude. This limit is comparable to what was found in the Planck 2015 two-point correlation analysis with both temperature and polarization. We perform a set of systematic error tests and find no evidence for contamination. This work marks the first time that anisotropic cosmic birefringence or primordial magnetic fields have been constrained from the ground at subdegree scales.
description: 10 pages, 5 figures. Phys. Rev. D Editors' Suggestion