Title: Search for parity-violating physics in the polarisation of the cosmic microwave background, so called “Cosmic Birefringence”
Speaker: Dr Yuto Minami (Osaka University)
Abstract: Polarised light of the cosmic microwave background, the remnant light of the Big Bang, is sensitive to parity-violating physics, cosmic birefringence. In this presentation we report on a new measurement of cosmic birefringence from polarisation data of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Planck satellite. The statistical significance of the measured signal is 2.4 σ. If confirmed with higher statistical significance in future, it would have important implications for the elusive nature of dark matter and dark energy.