INTERNSHIP REPORT

Student: Trinh Viet Duc

1. Introduction
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) has been one of the most important probes to
study the universe in the 21 stst century. It has an imprint
imprint fromfrom
thethe early
early universe
universe (before
(before thethe
timetime
of recombination)
recombination),and andcould
couldbebeseen
seenas
asthe
theevidence
evidenceforforthe
theBig
BigBang
Banghypothesis.
hypothesis.The
ThePlank
Plank
mission measured the temperature of the black body spectrum of the CMB to be
approximately 2.7K. However, measurements also showed small temperature fluctuations
around this average (of order 10-5). The angular power spectrum of this anisotropy may
contain
containscrucial
crucialinformation
informationofofthe
thecontents
contentsand
andeven
eventhe
theorigin
originofofthe
theuniverse.
universe.Recently,
Recently,
the consecutive success of detecting gravitational waves has opened up new possibilities
and driven scientists
drive scientist toto look
look forfor various
various channels
channels that
that could
could help
help search for
searching formore
moretypes
typesofof
this intriguing phenomenon, especially the quest to search for primordial gravitational
waves. CMB is also an excellent channel since the effect of polarization induced within the
CMB offers a direct hint to the tensor perturbations
pertubations ininthe
theearly
earlyuniverse.
universe.

This report will focus on explaining clearly the two most important features of the CMB: the
anisotropies and the polarization. Then, an overview of onaanpolarization observing
polarization observing
instrument known as half-wave plate is given, along with some concepts that go along with
its formalism such as Mueller matrix and rotation matrix. Finally, some prospects
prospectives
regarding CMB measurement in the future are discussed.
is discussed.

2. Scientific context
In order to study the behavior of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in the universe,
first we must address its two most important aspects: anisotropies and polarization.
2.1. Anisotropies
The primordial perturbations whichhave
pertubations which havebeen
beenset
setup
up(hypothetically)
(hypothetically)during
duringinflation
inflation
manifest themselves as the inhomogeneities and the anisotropies in the matter and
radiation distribution in the universe, respectively. Talking about the CMB, what was first
concerned is the evolution of the photon perturbations (photontemperature
pertubations (photon temperaturefield
field
fluctuations to be precise), which directly leads to predictions of the expected anisotropy
spectrum today. Before recombination (around the redshift z ≈ 1100), it is the tightly
coupled regime between the photons and the electrons, protons. Together they could be
seen as a a single “baryon-photon” fluid. After recombination, photon scattered off the last
scattering surface (LSS) and free-streamed to us until today. To find the evolution, the
Einstein equations and the Boltzmann equations are utilized. They can be solved numerically
to derive the expected spectra from various models.
The resulting anisotropy spectrum after studying the Einstein-Boltzmann equations shows
that it does not grow much with time, in contrast to matter perturbations,
pertubations, whichwhichdo
dogrow.
grow.
This means inflation produced small photon perturbations, andthey
pertubations, and theyremain
remainsmall
smalluntil
untiltoday.
today.
A second feature to notice is the difference
different ofinthe
theevolution
evolutionbetween
betweendifferent
differentmodes
modes(large-
(large-
scale and small-scale). For large-scale modes (specifically super-horizon modes), they show
little evolution (explained by the fact that they suffer no causal physics since their
wavelengths are larger than the horizon). This is very important because large-scale
anisotropies detected today carry the imprint of primordial perturbations.
pertubations. For Forsmall-scale
small-scale
modes, they evolved in a more complicated way. The modes grew after entering the horizon
until reaching their maximum
its maximum at at recombination,
recombination, which
which creates
creates a large-fluctuation
a large-fluctuation pattern
pattern in in
the anisotropy spectrum with “peak” in each angular scale. We will discuss more
the anisotropy spectrum with a “peak” in each angular scale. We will discuss more
quantitatively below.
2.1.1. The large-scale modes
First we recall the set of Einstein-Boltzmann equations that used to describe photons, dark
matter, baryons, and massless neutrinos:

This set of equations is very important. It describes the behavior of all the main elements in
our universe. We only need these equations to study the evolution of photon perturbations.
pertubations.
For the modes that are large-scale, kη ≪ 1 (where k represents the mode and η is conformal
time) and we can omit all the terms which are dependent on k. Solving
of k. Solving these
these super-horizon
super-horizon
equations with the appropriate initial conditions lead to the observed anisotropy:

Here θ0 is the monopole of the photon temperature fluctuations, ψ is accounted for the
effect
effect of
of gravitational
gravitational perturbations
pertubations to tothe
theobserved
observedphotons,
photons,and andδδ is the density
perturbations. Thisformula
pertubations. This formulaisisinteresting
interestingininthe
thefact
factthat
thatititrelates
relatesphoton
photonpertubations
perturbationstoto
matter perturbations,
pertubations, bybyaafactor
factor1/6.
of 1/6.
ThisThis factor
factor is soisimportant
so importantthatthat it rules
it rules outout almost
almost all all
structure formation models (where there is usually a factor close to 1 instead) other than
inflation.
2.1.2. Small-scale modes
First we have to address the tightly coupled limit. This corresponds to the scattering rate
between photons and electrons, protons are muchlarger
is much largerthan
thanthe
theexpansion
expansionrate.
rate.Using
Usingthis
this
condition, if we expand the temperature fluctuations θ using multipole expansion, we will
see that only the monopole and the dipole are the moments that which are non-negligible.
are AllAll
non-negligible.
other higher-order moments are suppressed. This is also called the fluid approximation
(where photons behave like a single fluid, described only with its density and fluid velocity).
With this approximation, we could solve the equations to find the tightly coupled solution:

We see that the temperature fluctuations in this regime have anoscillating

has an oscillatingpattern,
pattern,depends
depending
on the gravitational potentials. The oscillating frequency depends on the sound speed of the
fluid, which in turn depends on the baryon density.

But till now we have neglected the 2nd and higher-order moments due to their smallness in
this regime. If we take into account the quadrupole moment, there will be a damping effect
to the oscillating pattern. Solving the damping equations we find an approximate expression
for the perturbations:
pertubations:

Here kD is the damping wave number.

2.1.3. From pertubations to anisotropies
Now we have to relate the moments just found out to the observed anisotropies, which
means to find an expression for the CMB power spectrum. First we have to establish a
relation between the moments today and the moments during the time of recombination
(for measuring purpose). To do this, we have to return to integrate the first equation of the
set of Einstein-Boltzmann equations. Thisisisno
equation. This noeasy
easytask.
task.The
Thefinal
finalresult
resultlook
looklike
likethis:
this:
Here η* is the time of recombination. The formula looks complicated with Bessel functions
and an integration depending on the gravitational potentials. It consists of 3 terms. The first
term is called the Sachs-Wolfe term, which depends on the monopole (it also depends on
ψ,, which makes sense
the potential ψ sence since photons have to climb out of the potential well to
reach us). The second term is a dipole-dependent term. The third term depends on the
potentials and is called
called the
the integrated
integrated Sachs-Wolfe
Sachs-Wolfe (ISW)
(ISW) term.
term. The
The spherical
spherical Bessel
Bessel function
function is is
responsible for how much anisotropy on an angular scale 1/l is received by a plane wave k.
Next, we try to relate the moments today to the real observed anisotropy. The temperature
field is related to the perturbation by:

The difficulty in observation is the temperature measured is located in different spots in the
sky, so we have to use polar coordinates todescribe
coordinate to describethem,
them,while
whilewhat
whatwewehave
haveininhand
handisisonly
only
the dependence of the anisotropy on the direction p̂ of the incoming photon. To solve this,
expand the field in terms of spherical harmonics:

Here alm‘s are the real observables. To find them, we utilize the orthogonality of the
spherical harmonic function and have:

To gather all the information on all these observables, statistically we look at their variance.
This quantity is denoted as Cl :

Now we could multipole expanding θ to find the final expression for the Cl , which is also the
anisotropy spectrum:

Interestingly,
Interestingly, there
there is
arethe matter
the power
matter spectrum
power asas
spectrum well asas
well the density
the perturbation.
density perturbation.
These quantities appear because we have written the photon distribution as δ × (θ/δ). Since
the ratio θ/δ has been established before in the photon perturbation calculation, and it does
not depend on the initial amplitude, it can be removed when we do the averaging over the
distribution, and lead to the result with the matter power spectrum’s appearance above.
With this formula together with the Sachs-Wolfe equation, we have all the necessary
ingredients to compute the observed anisotropy. Ultimately, it depends on the matter
perturbations, themonopole
pertubations, the monopoleandanddipole
dipoleof
ofthe
thetemperature
temperaturefluctuations,
fluctuations,and
andthe
the
gravitational potentials.
2.1.4. Some historical events and the role of anisotropy measurement
After the discovery of the CMB in 1941, the theoretical work by Sachs and Wolfe in 1967 (the
large-scale Sachs-Wolfe effect) marked the start of a new direction to study the universe
through observing photon temperature fluctuations. Several other work studying
anisotropies in the tightly coupled limit followed, most remarkably the semianalytical
approach by Seljak (1994) and Hu and Sugiyama (1995). CMBFAST invented by Seljak and
Zaldarriaga (1996) made a fast numerical work.
The
The importance
importance ofof the anisotropy
anisotropy spectrum
spectrum extends
extend to betoa be a probe
probe to investigate
to investigate manymany
cosmological parameters, since it depends on them. The curvature of the universe, the effect
of dark energy or massive neutrinos on the CMB are a few to name. After the COBE
discovery, anisotropies due to tensors became a focal point of CMB research.
2.2. Polarization
2.2.1. Some basic concepts
Temperature fluctuations of the CMB radiation is not the only measureable quantity. The
effect of photon polarization is also induced within the process of Compton scattering during
the tightly coupled period. By observing polarization, not only we could gather more
information on the CMB but also search for gravitational waves during inflation, since they
produce very unique polarization patterns compareto
pattern compare toscalar
scalarpertubations.
perturbations.

Polarization is a shortened
shorten termterm
forfor
thethe difference
difference in the
in the intensities
intensities of of
thethe electric
electric and
and
magnetic fields in the 2 transverse directions to the photon propagation. Compton
magnetic fields in the 2 tranverse direction to the photon propagation. Compton scattering scattering
is a great mechanism to create polarization, since it stops any radiation in the parallel
direction to the outgoing propagation of scattered photons. Now we know there is
anisotropy in the photon distribution of the universe, which according to the Sachs-Wolfe
effect, could be divided into 3 contributions: a monopole term, a dipole term and a
quadrupole term. Normally, during Compton scattering, the quadrupole term is small
compared
compare totothetheother
othertwo
twoterms
termsand
andgenerally
generallyneglected.
neglected.However,
However,for
forproducing
producing
polarization, there must be quadrupole moment in the incoming radiation during the
Compton process, because both monopole and dipole moments cannot create polarization.
Due to the smallness of the quadrupole moment in the tightly coupled regime, the
polarization is expected to also be small, even smaller than the anisotropies.
We could characterize the intensity of the radiation with 3 parameters: T, Q, U. Suppose the
outgoing direction of a scattered photon to be ẑ, then the QU decomposition of the intensity
in the x̂-ŷ plane is:
 𝑇+𝑄 𝑈
Iij = ( )
𝑈 𝑇−𝑄
Here T(𝑥⃗,p̂ ,𝜂) = T(η)[1+θ(𝑥⃗,p̂ ,𝜂)] is the temperature of photon consist of an uniform part and
a perturbation θ. We introduce 2 new parameters Q,U, together with another parameter V
(which only appears in circular polarization, a phenomenon we do not expect during
Compton scattering) they make the Stoke parameters that represent polarization. The Stoke
vector is:
𝐼
𝑄
S=( )
𝑈
𝑉
Where we have I = <Ex2> + <Ey2>, Q = <Ex2> - <Ey2>, U = <Ea2> - <Eb2>, V = 0 (no circular
polarization). Here Ea , Eb are intensities based in the rotated Catersian basis by 450 (â,b̂).
This representation of Stoke vector could be changed when the polarization plane is changed
(later we use this with the rotation due to the half-wave plate). This corresponds to a change
of coordinate frame and is described
described byby
anan orthogonal
orthogonal transformation
transformation ofof the
the form:
form:
1 0 0 0
0 𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜃 𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜃 1
M(θ) = ( )
0 −𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜃 1
0 0 0 1
Where M(θ) is the rotation matrix represents rotating the polarization plane (counterclock
wise) by an angle θ around the ẑ axis.
2.2.2. CMB polarization
To study polarization of the CMB due to Compton scattering, we come back to the
Boltzmann equation, but this time not for the temperature fluctuations of the photon field,
but for the strength of the polarization field: θP. The equation is:

As usual, θP0 and θP2 are the monopole and quadrupole of the polarization field. Now we
need to relate θP to Q, U. Generally, the orientation of the wave vector k̂ could be written
using polar coordinate as k̂ = (sinθkcosφk , sinθksinφk , cosθk). Then Q and U are:

Next, we solve the Boltzmann equation to find expression for θP. The method is the same as
for temperature fluctuations we saw before. Using some approximation in the tightly
coupled limit, the final solution for the polarization moment today is:
We could have some comments here. This spectrum is smaller than the anisotropy spectrum
by a factor of order k/𝜏̇ at the time of decoupling, which we anticipated before (since it is
created by the already suppressed quadrupole moment). Also since it depends on the dipole
moment, which has an oscillating pattern that is out of phase with the monopole, we expect
the same behavior for the polarization moment. Finally, there is no counterpart to the ISW
effect of the anisotropy because polarization is not affected by changing potentials.
The angular power spectrum for the polarization CMB is similar to anisotropy spectrum:

Now we turn back to Q and U. We could write Q as the sum over all plane waves:

And similarly for U. After some calculations we have the power spectra for Q and U:

Now if we define:

Then:

Which means the B-mode vanishes and the E-mode is precisely equal the original spectrum.
2.3. Half-wave plate and Mueller matrix
2.3.1. Half-wave plate
A half-wave plate (HWP) is used to modulate the polarization state of light from the sky
before being measured
measured by detectors.
by detectors. It could
It could be periodically
be periodically stepped
stepped or continuously
or continuously rotated
rotated to to
modulate the signals. An ideal HWP has one of its crystal axes oriented at an angle θHWP to
the plane of polarization of incident light. As the light passes through it, it will rotate the
polarization plane by 2θHWP. Because the phase delay is only a half-wave at a single
frequency, the exact angle through which it rotates the polarization state is frequency-
dependent.
2.3.2. Mueller matrix
The Mueller matrix is a 4×44 matrix that describes thelinear
describe the linearrelationship
relationshipbetween
betweenpolarization
polarization
states of the incoming photon and the outgoing photon after passing through a polarization
material. In our context the material is the HWP.
Generally, the Mueller matrix for the HWP in the focal plane coordinates has the form:

𝑀𝐼𝐼 𝑀𝑄𝐼 𝑀𝑈𝐼 𝑀𝑉𝐼

𝑀𝐼𝑄 𝑀𝑄𝑄 𝑀𝑈𝑄 𝑀𝑉𝑄
M(θ,ρ-ψ) =
𝑀𝐼𝑈 𝑀𝑄𝑈 𝑀𝑈𝑈 𝑀𝑉𝑈
𝑀 𝑀𝑄𝑉 𝑀𝑈𝑉 𝑀𝑉𝑉
( 𝐼𝑉 )
Here θ is the incident angle with respect to the optical axis of the HWP; ψ is the rotation
angle of the reference axis of the focal plane with respect to sky coordinates; ρ = ⍵HWPt + ρ0 is
the HWP rotation angle with respect to the sky coordinates.

The rotation matrix for Stoke parameters has been mentioned and for this model:

1 0 0 0
0 𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜓 𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜓 1
R(ψ) = ( )
0 −𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜓 𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜓 1
0 0 0 1
Suppose we use a polarized detector at angle ψ0 with respect to a reference axis in the focal
plane coordinates. Then the observed signal has the expression:
𝐼
𝑄
𝑠 = (1 𝑐𝑜𝑠2ψ0 𝑠𝑖𝑛2ψ0 0)𝑀(𝜃, 𝜌 − 𝜓)𝑅(𝜓) ( ) + 𝑛
𝑈
𝑉
To find this we must construct the Mueller matrix. There are several methods that
correspond to different purposes. For example, the Mueller matrix could be expanded into
terms that correspond to different harmonics of the rotation frequency.
The advantage of using the Stoke parameter with a rotating HWP is to reduce the effect of
systematics, by modulation of the linearly polarized component of the radiation. However,
the presence of HWP itself introduce new systematic effects, but could be and must be
controlled. This is a very important part of the design of new B-modes experiments.

3. Conclusion and outlook

Through this report, analytical approaches of the anisotropies and polarization have been
has been
reviewed in detail.
details.However,
However,these
theseapproaches
approacheshave been given
has been given for
for aa long
long time
time and
and requires
require
new data from real measurements to test their ground. The implementation of the half-
wave plate is one of the preferred methods tomodulate
method to modulateand
andgather
gatherinformation
informationabout
aboutCMB
CMB
polarization.
The CMB measurements in the future will pack with it a lot of promises. New projects like
LiteBIRD, CORE,… with more powerful instruments and more sophisticated techniques are
developed at a fast
with pace.
a fast ForFor
pace. LiteBIRD, one
LiteBIRD, of of
one its its
goals
goalwill
willbebetototest
testthe
thelarge-field
large-field
inflation models with precise tensor-to-scalar ratio measurements. For CORE, the ultimate
mean timebefore
purpose will be all about CMB polarization. In the meantime beforethe thelaunching
launchingof ofthese
these
projects, more research will continue to help build the measuring techniques and make making
predictions on what exciting news we may get in the near future.