Researchers may be closer to uncovering secrets of the universe's formation after noticing a "subtle distortion" in light from just after the Big Bang.
A research team observed "twisting patterns in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background." The ancient light reacted with matter less than 400,000 years after the birth of our universe, a University of Chicago news release reported.
The light patterns, dubbed "B-modes," are caused by a phenomenon called "gravitational lensing." The event occurs when the "trajectory of light is bent by massive objects, much like a lens focuses light," the news release reported.
"The detection of B-mode polarization by South Pole Telescope is a major milestone, a technical achievement that indicates exciting physics to come," John Carlstrom, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, said.
The light particles associated with the Big Bang (the cosmic microwave background) are spread throughout space, and have been measured at a temperature of negative 270 degrees Celsius. Researchers have mapped small changes in light throughout the universe. This research has helped scientists gain insight into the history of the universe.
Researchers are particularly interested in polarized light ("its electromagnetic waves are preferentially oriented in a particular direction"), which occurs when photons were scattered off electrons in the early days of the universe. This event causes swirl-free "E modes," which are more easily detected than B-modes.
B modes are spawned through a more complex process than simple scattering; however gravitational lensing has been thought to have the ability to "twist" E modes into B modes. The team believes they have confirmed that idea.
The scientists looked at previously-compiled maps that revealed the distribution of mass in the universe to determine where lensing might be present.
They used their predictions of E modes and mass distribution to determine where B mode "twisting" may occur.
The study of B modes could help the researchers more accurately map out mass distribution, revealing more secrets of the universe.
Studying B modes could also help provide evidence of "inflation," which is "the theorized turbulent period in the moments after the Big Bang when the universe expanded extremely rapidly."
"The detection of a primordial B-mode polarization signal in the microwave background would amount to finding the first tremors of the Big Bang," the study's lead author, Duncan Hanson, a postdoctoral scientist at McGill University in Canada, said.
B modes from inflation are caused by gravitational waves.
"These ripples in space-time are generated by intense gravitational turmoil, conditions that would have existed during inflation. These waves, stretching and squeezing the fabric of the universe, would give rise to the telltale twisted polarization patterns of B modes," the news release reported.
Researchers hope that by measuring the polarization will help confirm the theory of inflation.
"The new result shows that this noise can be accounted for and subtracted off so that scientists can search for and hopefully measure the inflationary B modes underneath," Hanson said. "The lensing signal itself can also be used by itself to learn about the distribution of mass in the universe."
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