Indication of Anisotropy in Electromagnetic Propagation over Cosmological Distances

Preprint

20 April 1997

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/9704196

Abstract

We report a systematic rotation of the plane of polarization of electromagnetic radiation propagating over cosmological distances. The effect is extracted independently from Faraday rotation, and found to be correlated with the angular positions and distances to the sources. Monte Carlo analysis yields probabilistic P-values of order 10^(-3) for this to occur as a fluctuation. A fit yields a birefringence scale of order 10^(25) meters. Dependence on redshift z rules out a local effect. Barring hidden systematic bias in the data, the correlation indicates a new cosmological effect.

Keywords

PROPAGATION OVER COSMOLOGICAL
ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPAGATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
COSMOLOGICAL DISTANCES
POLARIZATION
PROPAGATING
MONTE CARLO
ANISOTROPY

All Related Versions

Version 1, 1997-04-20, ArXiv
Published version: Physical Review Letters, 78 (16), 3043.

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