Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 29, 2025

In Situ Measurement of Vacuum Window Birefringence using 25Mg+ Fluorescence
Published on: June 13, 2020
Cosmic Birefringence from the Planck Data Release 4
P Diego-Palazuelos1,2, J R Eskilt3, Y Minami4
1Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria), Avenida de los Castros s/n, E-39005 Santander, Spain.
Abstract:
We search for the signature of parity-violating physics in the cosmic microwave background, called cosmic birefringence, using the Planck data release 4. We initially find a birefringence angle of β=0.30°±0.11° (68% C.L.) for nearly full-sky data. The values of β decrease as we enlarge the Galactic mask, which can be interpreted as the effect of polarized foreground emission. Two independent ways to model this effect are used to mitigate the systematic impact on β for different sky fractions. We choose not to assign cosmological significance to the measured value of β until we improve our knowledge of the foreground polarization.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Emission Spectroscopy: Interference
UV–Vis Spectroscopy: Beer–Lambert Law
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...
UV–Vis Spectrum
The UV–Vis spectrum of a molecule is the plot of its absorbance versus wavelength. The plot is drawn by taking molar...
Gauss's Law: Planar Symmetry

