Polarization of the Anomalous Microwave Emission

López-Caraballo, C. H.; Génova-Santos, R.
Bibliographical reference

Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VII, Proceedings of the X Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), held in Valencia, July 9 - 13, 2012, Eds.: J.C. Guirado, L.M. Lara, V. Quilis, and J. Gorgas., pp.256-257

Advertised on:
5
2013
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The standard physical mechanisms of the continuum emission in the microwave range are the synchrotron, free-free, and/or thermal dust emissions. Nevertheless, and based on observations over the last two decades, we can find a new process of emission, called Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME), which consists of an excess of dust-correlated microwave emission (10-60 GHz). Observational studies of the AME, both in intensity and polarization, allowed us to extend our knowledge of the different physical processes in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), as well as its implications in the study of the inflationary epoch of the Universe, via the possible effects in the detectability of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), in particular the detection of B-modes. In this talk, we present a summary of the observational measurements of the polarization of the AME for: 1) the diffuse Galactic emission (only two works based on the WMAP data); and 2) individual Galactic regions, two H{II} regions LPH96 and Helix; and four dust clouds Perseus, ρ Ophiuchi, LDN1622 and Pleiades). Around the peak of the emission (20-30 GHz), the constraints on the fractional polarization of AME are of the order of ˜1% (95% C.L.) for both individual compact and large-scale Galactic regions. Then, we use these constraints in order to test the theoretical AME models available to date. Finally, we discuss the effects of a polarized diffuse AME contribution on the current and future polarized CMB experiments.