Planck intermediate results

XLIX. Parity-violation constraints from polarization data

¹ APC, AstroParticule et Cosmologie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/lrfu, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
² African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 6-8 Melrose Road, Muizenberg 7945, Cape Town, South Africa
³ Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Science Data Center, via del Politecnico snc, 00133 Roma, Italy
⁴ Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J J Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
⁵ Astrophysics & Cosmology Research Unit, School of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa
⁶ CITA, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
⁷ CNRS, IRAP, 9 Av. colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁸ California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁹ Computational Cosmology Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
¹⁰ Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève, 24 quai E. Ansermet, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
¹¹ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹² Departamento de Física, Universidad de Oviedo, Avda. Calvo Sotelo s/n, 33007 Oviedo, Spain
¹³ Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹⁴ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letter, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
¹⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
¹⁸ Department of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
¹⁹ Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
²⁰ Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
²¹ Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois, USA
²² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia G. Galilei, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
²³ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
²⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
²⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università La Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
²⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
²⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trieste, via A. Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
²⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
²⁹ Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
³⁰ European Space Agency, ESAC, Planck Science Office, Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n, Urbanización Villafranca del Castillo, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
³¹ European Space Agency, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
³² Gran Sasso Science Institute, INFN, viale F. Crispi 7, 67100 L’ Aquila, Italy
³³ HGSFP and University of Heidelberg, Theoretical Physics Department, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³⁴ Helsinki Institute of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
³⁵ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
³⁶ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
³⁷ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 40127 Trieste, Italy
³⁸ INAF/IASF Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
³⁹ INAF/IASF Milano, via E. Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴⁰ INFN – CNAF, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
⁴¹ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
⁴² INFN, Sezione di Ferrara, via Saragat 1, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
⁴³ INFN, Sezione di Roma 1, Università di Roma Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
⁴⁴ INFN, Sezione di Roma 2, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00185 Roma, Italy
⁴⁵ IPAG: Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, Université Grenoble Alpes, IPAG; CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
⁴⁶ Imperial College London, Astrophysics group, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
⁴⁷ Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, Bât. 121, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
⁴⁸ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS (UMR 7095), 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
⁴⁹ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
⁵⁰ Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Blindern, 0371 Oslo, Norway
⁵¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, C/Vía Láctea s/n, La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain
⁵² Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria), Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain
⁵³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
⁵⁴ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 31109, USA
⁵⁵ Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
⁵⁶ Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
⁵⁷ Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK
⁵⁸ LAL, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, 91898 Orsay, France
⁵⁹ LERMA, CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
⁶⁰ Laboratoire Traitement et Communication de l’Information, CNRS (UMR 5141) and Télécom ParisTech, 46 rue Barrault, 75634 Paris Cedex 13, France
⁶¹ Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et Cosmologie, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, 53 rue des Martyrs, 38026 Grenoble Cedex, France
⁶² Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université Paris-Sud 11 & CNRS, Bâtiment 210, 91405 Orsay, France
⁶³ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
⁶⁴ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
⁶⁵ Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland
⁶⁶ Nordita (Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics), Roslagstullsbacken 23, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
⁶⁷ SISSA, Astrophysics Sector, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
⁶⁸ School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa
⁶⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK
⁷⁰ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
⁷¹ Simon Fraser University, Department of Physics, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby BC, Canada
⁷² Sorbonne Université-UPMC, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
⁷³ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
⁷⁴ Sub-Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
⁷⁵ The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Department of Physics,Stockholm University, AlbaNova, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
⁷⁶ UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7095, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
⁷⁷ Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁷⁸ University of Granada, Departamento de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, Facultad de Ciencias, 18071 Granada, Spain
⁷⁹ Warsaw University Observatory, Aleje Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland

Received: 27 May 2016
Accepted: 4 August 2016

Abstract

Parity-violating extensions of the standard electromagnetic theory cause in vacuo rotation of the plane of polarization of propagating photons. This effect, also known as cosmic birefringence, has an impact on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy angular power spectra, producing non-vanishing T–B and E–B correlations that are otherwise null when parity is a symmetry. Here we present new constraints on an isotropic rotation, parametrized by the angle α, derived from Planck 2015 CMB polarization data. To increase the robustness of our analyses, we employ two complementary approaches, in harmonic space and in map space, the latter based on a peak stacking technique. The two approaches provide estimates for α that are in agreement within statistical uncertainties and are very stable against several consistency tests.Considering the T–B and E–B information jointly, we find from the harmonic analysis and from the stacking approach. These constraints are compatible with no parity violation and are dominated by the systematic uncertainty in the orientation of Planck’s polarization-sensitive bolometers.