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waynehu

Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Chicago

Group Contact CV SnapShots
CMB Introduction '96   Intermediate '01   Polarization Intro '01   Cosmic Symphony '04   Polarization Primer '97   Review '02   Power Animations   Lensing   Power Prehistory   Legacy Material '96   PhD Thesis '95 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations Cosmic Shear Clusters
Transfer Function WMAP Likelihood Reionization PPF for CAMB Halo Mass Conversion Cluster Abundance
Intro to Cosmology [243] Cosmology I [legacy 321] Cosmology II [321] Current Topics [282] Galaxies and Universe [242] Radiative Processes [305] Research Preparation [307] GR Perturbation Theory [408] CMB [448] Cosmic Acceleration [449]

Polarization Patterns

 

The considerations of §2 imply that scalars, vectors, and tensors generate distinct patterns in the polarization of the CMB. However, although they separate cleanly into tex2html_wrap_inline1044 polarization patterns for a single plane wave perturbation in the coordinate system referenced to tex2html_wrap_inline1162 , in general there will exist a spectrum of fluctuations each with a different tex2html_wrap_inline1162 . Therefore the polarization pattern on the sky does not separate into tex2html_wrap_inline1044 modes. In fact, assuming statistical isotropy, one expects the ensemble averaged power for each multipole tex2html_wrap_inline1272 to be independent of m. Nonetheless, certain properties of the polarization patterns discussed in the last section do survive superposition of the perturbations: in particular, its parity and its correlation with the temperature fluctuations. We now discuss how one can describe polarization patterns on the sky arising from a spectrum of tex2html_wrap_inline1162 modes.



Next: Electric and Magnetic Modes