Constraints on Cosmic Birefringence from SPIDER, Planck, and ACT observations

TL;DR

This paper analyzes cosmic birefringence using data from SPIDER, Planck, and ACT, constraining models involving early dark energy and Chern-Simons coupling, and finds a significant detection of polarization rotation.

Contribution

It provides the first combined analysis of multiple CMB experiments to constrain cosmic birefringence and the Chern-Simons coupling, improving the understanding of parity violation in the early universe.

Findings

SPIDER data incompatible with the Chern-Simons coupling model

Planck and ACT data fit the coupling model reasonably well

Combined Planck+ACT data detect a nonzero polarization rotation angle at 7σ significance

Abstract

The Early Dark Energy (EDE) model has been proposed as a candidate mechanism to generate cosmic birefringence through a Chern-Simons coupling between a dynamical scalar field and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photon. Such birefringence induces a nonzero cross-correlation between the CMB $E$- and $B$-modes, providing a direct observational signature of parity violation. Recent measurements of the $EB$ and $TB$ power spectra, however, cannot yet unambiguously separate instrumental miscalibration ($\alpha$) from a true cosmic-rotation angle ($\beta$). For this reason, we perform a model-independent analysis in terms of the total effective rotation angle $\alpha+\beta$. We analyze the latest $EB$ and $TB$ measurements from the SPIDER, Planck, and ACT experiments and derive constraints on the Chern-Simons coupling constant $gM_{Pl}$ and on the polarization rotation angle $\alpha+\beta$. We find that the coupling $gM_{Pl}$ is not compatible with the SPIDER data, while it provides reasonable fits to the Planck and ACT measurements. The fits for $\alpha+\beta$ prefer a value larger than zero: when combined, Planck+ACT yield a detection significance of approximately 7$\sigma$. We also find that ACT data alone do not provide sufficiently tight constraints on either $gM_{Pl}$ or $\alpha+\beta$, whereas the combination Planck+ACT improves the statistical consistency of ACT's high-$\ell$ results and leads to a better PTE for those measurements.