The effect of cosmic variance on the characteristics of dust polarization power spectra

¹ Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Vasilika Vouton, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
e-mail: pelgrims@physics.uoc.gr
² Department of Physics & ITCP, University of Crete, 70013, Heraklion, Greece
³ Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri, 7 56126 Pisa, Italy

Received: 26 July 2021
Accepted: 4 January 2022

Abstract

In the context of cosmic microwave background polarization studies and the characterization of the Galactic foregrounds, the power spectrum analysis of the thermal dust polarization sky has led to intriguing evidence of an E∕B asymmetry and a positive TE correlation. In this work, we produce synthesized dust polarization maps from a set of global magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of Milky-Way-sized galaxies, and analyze their power spectra at intermediate angular scales (intermediate angular multipoles ℓ∈[60, 140]). We study the role of the initial configuration of the large-scale magnetic field, its strength, and the feedback on the power spectrum characteristics. Using full-galaxy MHD simulations, we were able to estimate the variance induced by the peculiar location of the observer in the galaxy. We find that the polarization power spectra sensitively depend on the observer’s location, impeding a distinction between different simulation setups. In particular, there is a clear statistical difference between the power spectra measured from within the spiral arms and those measured from the inter-arm regions. Also, power spectra from within supernova-driven bubbles share common characteristics, regardless of the underlying model. However, no correlation was found between the statistical properties of the polarization power spectra and the local (with respect to the observer) mean values of physical quantities such as the density and the strength of the magnetic field. Finally, we find some indications that the global strength of the magnetic field may play a role in shaping the power spectrum characteristics; as the global magnetic field strength increases, the E∕B asymmetry and the TE correlation increase, whereas the viewpoint-induced variance decreases. However, we find no direct correlation with the strength of the local magnetic field that permeates the mapped region of the interstellar medium.