Generation of the CMB cosmic Birefringence through Axion-like particles, Sterile and Active neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how axion-like particles, sterile neutrinos, and active neutrinos contribute to cosmic microwave background birefringence, revealing that neutrinos and ALPs significantly influence the polarization rotation, which can be distinguished through future observations.

Contribution

The study models the impact of sterile neutrinos and ALPs on CMB birefringence using the Quantum Boltzmann equation, providing new insights into their relative contributions and parameter constraints.

Findings

Sterile neutrino contribution to CB is minimal.

Neutrinos and ALPs significantly affect the CMB EB power spectrum.

Future data can distinguish sources of CB based on EB spectrum behavior.

Abstract

The cosmic birefringence (CB) angle refers to the rotation of the linear polarization plane of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiations when parity-violating theories are considered. We analyzed the Quantum Boltzmann equation for an ensemble of CMB photons interacting with the right-handed sterile neutrino dark matter (DM) and axion-like particles (ALPs) DM in the presence of the scalar metric perturbation. We used the birefringence angle of CMB to study those probable candidates of DM. It is shown that the CB angle contribution of sterile neutrino is much less that two other sources considered here. Next, we combined the results of the cosmic neutrinos' contribution and the contribution of the ALPs to producing the CMB birefringence and discussed the uncertainty on the parameter space of axions caused by the share of CMB-cosmic neutrino interaction in generating this effect. Finally, we plotted the EB power spectrum of the CMB and showed that this spectrum behaves differently in the presence of cosmic neutrinos and ALPs interactions in small $l$. Hence, future observed data for $C^{l}_{EB}$, will help us to distinguish the CB angle value due to the various sources of its production.