Polarized Radiation in Relativistic Cosmology

General relativity marked the beginning of modern cosmology and it has since been at the centre of many of the key developments in this field. In the present review, we discuss the general-relativistic dynamics and perturbations of the standard cosmological model, the Friedmann-Lemaitre universe, and how these can explain and predict the properties of the observable universe. Our aim is to provide an overview of the progress made in several major research areas, such as linear and non-linear cosmological perturbations, large-scale structure formation and the physics of the cosmic microwave background radiation, in view of current and upcoming observations. We do this by using a single formalism throughout the review, the 1+3 covariant approach to cosmology, which allows for a uniform and balanced presentation of technical information and physical insight.Comment: Several minor changes, typos corrected, references added and updated (Physics Reports in press

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“…[283]), is also commonly employed [276]. The expansion (4.3.9) is also equivalent to that introduced in the 1970s by Dautcourt & Rose [284].…”

Section: 12)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some general observations follow from Eq. (4.3.40) [224,228,284]. It is written in irreducible form with the first set of terms on the right affecting the total intensity, the second set the linear polarization and the third the circular polarization.…”

Section: 36)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relativistic cosmology and large-scale structure

2008

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“…We use a standard Thomson scattering kernel in the form derived by Hu & White (1997) (see also Dautcourt & Rose 1978): where τ′= n e σ t e α gives the scattering rate in conformal time, and are the dipole moments of the electron peculiar velocity in the orthonormal frame. It follows from that Thomson scattering of the temperature quadrupole generates polarization that is an E‐mode quadrupole.…”

Section: Boltzmann Equationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bianchi model CMB polarization and its implications for CMB anomalies

Pontzen¹,

Challinor²

2007

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

105

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We derive the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiative transfer equation in the form of a multipole hierarchy in the nearly Friedmann–Robertson–Walker limit of homogeneous, but anisotropic, universes classified via their Bianchi type. Compared with previous calculations, this allows a more sophisticated treatment of recombination, produces predictions for the polarization of the radiation and allows for reionization. Our derivation is independent of any assumptions about the dynamical behaviour of the field equations, except that it requires anisotropies to be small back to recombination; this is already demanded by observations. We calculate the polarization signal in the Bianchi VIIh case, with the parameters recently advocated to mimic the several large‐angle anomalous features observed in the CMB. We find that the peak polarization signal is ∼1.2 μK for the best‐fitting model to the temperature anisotropies, and is mostly confined to multipoles l < 10. Remarkably, the predicted large‐angle EE and TE power spectra in the Bianchi model are consistent with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations that are usually interpreted as evidence of early reionization. However, the power in B‐mode polarization is predicted to be similar to the E‐mode power and parity‐violating correlations are also predicted by the model; the WMAP non‐detection of either of these signals casts further strong doubts on the veracity of attempts to explain the large‐angle anomalies with global anisotropy. On the other hand, given that there exist further dynamical degrees of freedom in the VIIh universes that are yet to be compared with CMB observations, we cannot at this time definitively reject the anisotropy explanation.

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“…The terms to the left of the equality sign in the second line would vanish had we chosen a basis of parallel-transported polarization vectors. The extra terms in the rigid basis are equivalent to similar terms that appear in [22].…”

Section: B Propagation Of Polarized Photonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boltzmann hierarchy for the cosmic microwave background at second order including photon polarization

Beneke

Fidler

2010

Phys. Rev. D

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Non-gaussianity and B-mode polarization are particularly interesting features of the cosmic microwave background, as -at least in the standard model of cosmology -their only sources to first order in cosmological perturbation theory are primordial, possibly generated during inflation. If the primordial sources are small, the question arises how large is the non-gaussianity and B-mode background induced in second-order from the initially gaussian and scalar perturbations. In this paper we derive the Boltzmann hierarchy for the microwave background photon phase-space distributions at second order in cosmological perturbation theory including the complete polarization information, providing the basis for further numerical studies. As an aside we note that the second-order collision term contains new sources of B-mode polarization and that no polarization persists in the tight-coupling limit.

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Polarized Radiation in Relativistic Cosmology

Cited by 15 publications

References 22 publications

Relativistic cosmology and large-scale structure

Relativistic cosmology and large-scale structure

Bianchi model CMB polarization and its implications for CMB anomalies

Boltzmann hierarchy for the cosmic microwave background at second order including photon polarization

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