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Physics Letters B
Volume 554, Issues 1-2, 13 February 2003, Pages 1-6
 
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doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(02)03291-4    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Is the cosmic microwave background circularly polarized?

Asantha CoorayE-mail The Corresponding Author, a, Alessandro MelchiorriE-mail The Corresponding Author, b and Joseph SilkE-mail The Corresponding Author, b

a Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA b Astrophysics, Denys Wilkinson Building, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX 3RH, UK

Received 6 December 2002; 
accepted 27 December 2002;
Editor: J. Frieman 
Available online 17 January 2003.
This article has been registered under preprint number astro-ph/0205214
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Abstract

The primordial anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are linearly polarized via Compton-scattering. The Faraday conversion process during the propagation of polarized CMB photons through regions of the large-scale structure containing magnetized relativistic plasma, such as galaxy clusters, will lead to a circularly polarized contribution. Though the resulting Stokes-V parameter is of order 10−9 at frequencies of 10 GHz, the contribution can potentially reach the level of total Stokes-U at low frequencies due to the cubic dependence on the wavelength. In future, the detection of circular polarization of CMB can be used as a potential probe of the physical properties associated with relativistic particle populations in large-scale structures.

Article Outline

• Acknowledgements
• References


Physics Letters B
Volume 554, Issues 1-2, 13 February 2003, Pages 1-6
 
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