We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by ξ, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate ξ ≃ - 0.097 ± 0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to ξ achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1 - σ confidence of 8.5 × 10- 4 (PLANCK), 6.1 × 10- 3 (Spider), and 1.0 × 10- 5 (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1 × 10- 6. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Planck-scale sensitivity of CMB polarization data / Gubitosi, G.; Pagano, L.. - 194:(2009), pp. 69-75. [10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2009.07.027]

Planck-scale sensitivity of CMB polarization data

Gubitosi G.;
2009

Abstract

We show that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization data gathered by the BOOMERanG 2003 flight and WMAP provide an opportunity to investigate in-vacuo birefringence, of a type expected in some quantum pictures of space-time, with a sensitivity that extends even beyond the desired Planck-scale energy. In order to render this constraint more transparent we rely on a well studied phenomenological model of quantum-gravity-induced birefringence, in which one easily establishes that effects introduced at the Planck scale would amount to values of a dimensionless parameter, denoted by ξ, with respect to the Planck energy which are roughly of order 1. By combining BOOMERanG and WMAP data we estimate ξ ≃ - 0.097 ± 0.075 at the 68% c.l. Moreover, we forecast on the sensitivity to ξ achievable by future CMB polarization experiments (PLANCK, Spider, EPIC), which, in the absence of systematics, will be at the 1 - σ confidence of 8.5 × 10- 4 (PLANCK), 6.1 × 10- 3 (Spider), and 1.0 × 10- 5 (EPIC) respectively. The cosmic variance-limited sensitivity from CMB is 6.1 × 10- 6. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2009
Planck-scale sensitivity of CMB polarization data / Gubitosi, G.; Pagano, L.. - 194:(2009), pp. 69-75. [10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2009.07.027]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/833583
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