Version 1.1 is a validation and reproducibility release for cosmic birefringence detection. It reports highly significant, scale-dependent rotation of the linear polarization plane in the Cosmic Microwave Background derived from Planck 2018 SMICA and NILC maps over multipoles ℓ = 500–1500. The dataset was created by Amy Condit of 22 Blue CMB Birefringence & Standing-Wave Rotation Field and last updated on 2026-06-17.
Use Cases
- Validate isotropic cosmic birefringence detection based on reported 8.5σ significance in the lowest multipole band.
- Analyze scale dependence of polarization rotation based on measurements from ℓ = 500–800 to ℓ = 1100–1500.
- Investigate anisotropic, directional signals based on the reported 4–5σ North–South dipole in the mid-multipole range.
- Test cosmological models of parity violation beyond the Standard Model based on the anisotropic origin suggested in the description.
Strengths
- Includes reproducibility scripts and validation data products to facilitate independent verification.
- Reports a highly significant isotropic rotation detection at 8.5σ and a directional dipole at 4–5σ.
- Combines results from two independent component-separation methods (SMICA and NILC) via inverse-variance weighting.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- Planck 2018 SMICA and NILC component-separated maps.
- Collection Method
- Linearized EB estimators with a quantitative q-mask applied per multipole band.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-06-17 20:19:06; freshness should be verified.