Abstract
We present a pedagogical and phenomenological introduction to the study of
cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization to build intuition about the
prospects and challenges facing its detection. Thomson scattering of
temperature anisotropies on the last scattering surface generates a linear
polarization pattern on the sky that can be simply read off from their
quadrupole moments. These in turn correspond directly to the fundamental scalar
(compressional), vector (vortical), and tensor (gravitational wave) modes of
cosmological perturbations. We explain the origin and phenomenology of the
geometric distinction between these patterns in terms of the so-called electric
and magnetic parity modes, as well as their correlation with the temperature
pattern. By its isolation of the last scattering surface and the various
perturbation modes, the polarization provides unique information for the
phenomenological reconstruction of the cosmological model. Finally we comment
on the comparison of theory with experimental data and prospects for the future
detection of CMB polarization.
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