New Constraints on Cosmic Polarization Rotation from the ACTPol Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode Polarization Observation and the BICEP2 Constraint Update

Abstract

Recently, ACTPol measured the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode and E-mode polarizations and obtained TE, EE, BB, TB, and EB power spectra in the multipole range 225-8725. In our previous paper (Paper I), we jointly analyzed the results of three experiments on the CMB B-mode polarization—SPTpol, POLARBEAR, and BICEP2—to include in the model, in addition to the gravitational lensing and inflationary gravitational waves components, the fluctuation effects induced by cosmic polarization rotation (CPR) if it exists within the upper limits at the time. In this paper, we fit both the mean CPR angle < α > and its fluctuation < δ {{α }²}> from the new ACTPol data, and update our fitting of CPR fluctuations using the BICEP2 data taking the new Planck dust measurement results into consideration. We follow the same method used in Paper I. The mean CPR angle is constrained from the EB correlation power spectra to |< α > |\lt 14 mrad (0.°8) and the fluctuation (rms) is constrained from the BB correlation power spectra to {{< δ {{α }²}> }^1/2}\lt 29.3 mrad (1.°68). Assuming that the polarization angle of Tau A does not change from 89.2 to 146 GHz, the ACTPol data give < α > =1.0+/- 0\buildrel{\circ}\over{.} 63. These results suggest that the inclusion of the present ACTPol data is consistent with no CPR detection. Using the new Planck dust measurement, we update our fits of the BICEP2 CPR fluctuation constraint to be 32.8 mrad (1.°88). The joint ACTPol-BICEP2-POLARBEAR CPR fluctuation constraint is 23.7 mrad (1.°36).