CaltechAUTHORS
Published April 15, 2020 | Version Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Constraints on cosmic birefringence

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Cambridge
  • 2. ROR icon University of Pittsburgh
  • 3. ROR icon Cornell University
  • 4. ROR icon National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
  • 6. ROR icon Cardiff University
  • 7. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 8. ROR icon University of Pennsylvania
  • 9. ROR icon Princeton University
  • 10. ROR icon Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  • 11. ROR icon University of Southern California
  • 12. ROR icon Stony Brook University
  • 13. ROR icon University of Toronto
  • 14. ROR icon Florida State University
  • 15. ROR icon Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • 16. ROR icon Yale University
  • 17. ROR icon Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie
  • 18. ROR icon Perimeter Institute
  • 19. ROR icon Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
  • 20. ROR icon University of Chicago
  • 21. ROR icon University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • 22. ROR icon University of Milano-Bicocca
  • 23. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 24. ROR icon Pontificial Catholic University of Valparaiso
  • 25. ROR icon Arizona State University
  • 26. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract

We present new constraints on anisotropic birefringence of the cosmic microwave background polarization using two seasons of data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope covering 456 square degrees of sky. The birefringence power spectrum, measured using a curved-sky quadratic estimator, is consistent with zero. Our results provide the tightest current constraint on birefringence over a range of angular scales between 5 arc minutes and 9°. We improve previous upper limits on the amplitude of a scale-invariant birefringence power spectrum by a factor of between 2 and 3. Assuming a nearly massless axion field during inflation, our result is equivalent to a 2σ upper limit on the Chern-Simons coupling constant between axions and photons of g_(αγ) < 4.0×10⁻²/H_I, where HI is the inflationary Hubble scale.

Additional Information

© 2020 American Physical Society. Received 1 February 2020; accepted 2 April 2020; published 17 April 2020. T. N. thanks Ryo Nagata and Levon Pogosian for helpful discussions. Some of the results in this paper have been derived using a dust simulation generated by Ref. [54] and public software of the healpy [81], HEALPix [82], and CAMB [83]. This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through Grants No. AST-1440226, No. AST0965625 and No. AST-0408698 for the ACT project, as well as Grants No. PHY-1214379 and No. PHY-0855887. Funding was also provided by Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant to UBC. ACT operates in the Parque Astronomico Atacama in northern Chile under the auspices of the Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientfica y Tecnologica de Chile (CONICYT). Computations were performed on the GPC and Niagara supercomputers at the SciNet HPC Consortium. SciNet is funded by the CFI under the auspices of Compute Canada, the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence, and the University of Toronto. The development of multichroic detectors and lenses was supported by NASA Grants No. NNX13AE56G and No. NNX14AB58G. Colleagues at AstroNorte and RadioSky provide logistical support and keep operations in Chile running smoothly. We also thank the Mishrahi Fund and the Wilkinson Fund for their generous support of the project. T. N., O. D., and B. D. S. acknowledge support from an Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Grant and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 851274). B. D. S. further acknowledges support from an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. D. H., A. M., and N. S. acknowledge support from NSF Grant No. 1513618. J. D. and E. S. acknowledge support from NSF Grant No. 1814971. E. C. is supported by an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship No. ST/M004856/2 and STFC Consolidated Grant No. ST/S00033X/1. L. M. received funding from CONICYT FONDECYT Grant No. 3170846. K. M. acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevD.101.083527.pdf

Submitted - 2001.10465.pdf

Files

2001.10465.pdf

Files (762.0 kB)

Name Size
md5:b421540bbc541cae1dc1f5ccc89ff4a4
391.2 kB Preview Download
md5:2a3ee1f7408b4fb5d5167fc5db82871d
370.8 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
102639
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20200417-143354054

Related works

Describes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.10465 (URL)

Funding

NSF
AST-1440226
NSF
AST-0965625
NSF
AST-0408698
NSF
PHY-1214379
NSF
PHY-0855887
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT)
Compute Canada
Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence
University of Toronto
NASA
NNX13AE56G
NASA
NNX14AB58G
Mishrahi Fund
Wilkinson Fund
Isaac Newton Trust
European Research Council (ERC)
851274
NSF
AST-1513618
NSF
AST-1814971
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
ST/M004856/2
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
ST/S00033X/1
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT)
3170846
National Research Foundation (South Africa)

Dates

Created
2020-04-17
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field