Abstract
According to the standard cosmology, near the last scattering surface, the photons scattered via Compton scattering are just linearly polarized and then the primordial circular polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons is zero. In this work we show that CMB polarization acquires a small degree of circular polarization when a background magnetic field is considered or the quantum electrodynamic sector of standard model is extended by Lorentz-noninvariant operators as well as noncommutativity. The existence of circular polarization for the CMB radiation may be verified during future observation programs, and it represents a possible new channel for investigating new physics effects.
- Received 30 December 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.81.084035
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