2013/12/31 by POLARBEAR Collaboration, P. A. R. Ade, Y. Akiba +80 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Astronomy #Astrophysics #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic infrared background #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxy #Gravitational lens #Microwave #Observational cosmology #Optics #Physics #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Redshift #Spectral density #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #Weak gravitational lensing #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.021301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 021301 (2014) · 7 pages, 3 figures. Matches Physical Review Letters accepted version. Submitted on 11 March 2014; accepted on 25 April 2014. The companion paper (arXiv:1312.6645) describes a measurement of polarization lensing in cross-correlation
arxiv created 2014/04/27 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/09 · arxiv updated 2014/07/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Gravitational lensing due to the large-scale distribution of matter in the cosmos distorts the primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) and thereby induces new, small-scale B-mode polarization. This signal carries detailed information about the distribution of all the gravitating matter between the observer and CMB last scattering surface. We report the first direct evidence for polarization lensing based on purely CMB information, from using the four-point correlations of even- and odd-parity E- and B-mode polarization mapped over ∼30 square degrees of the sky measured by the POLARBEAR experiment. These data were analyzed using a blind analysis framework and checked for spurious systematic contamination using null tests and simulations. Evidence for the signal of polarization lensing and lensing B modes is found at 4.2σ (stat+sys) significance. The amplitude of matter fluctuations is measured with a precision of 27%, and is found to be consistent with the Lambda cold dark matter cosmological model. This measurement demonstrates a new technique, capable of mapping all gravitating matter in the Universe, sensitive to the sum of neutrino masses, and essential for cleaning the lensing B-mode signal in searches for primordial gravitational waves.