Constraining Lorentz Violation using 21cm and CMB Cross Correlations

Abstract

Lorentz symmetry is a fundamental pillar of modern Physics, yet high-energy theories often predict its violation. One potential signature of such a violation is cosmic birefringence - rotation of the polarization plane of photons due to Chern-Simons coupling in Maxwell's electrodynamics. This rotation angle, aka birefringence angle, depends upon the distance travelled by the photon and is thus different for CMB and 21cm photons. While the rotation angle in CMB, i.e., $\alpha_\mathrm{CMB}$, has been tightly constrained by CMB experiments, the potential of the 21cm cosmological signal to constrain this parameter, as well as constrain $\alpha_\mathrm{21cm}$, remains largely unexplored. In this work, we provide constraints on both these angles by cross-correlating 21cm and CMB signals. Using the Fisher matrix formalism, we give our forecasts for 21cm experiments, including SKA, HIRAX, and PUMA, and Planck like CMB experiment. We find that best constraints $\sigma_{\alpha_\mathrm{CMB}} \sim 4.4^\circ$ and $\sigma_{\alpha_\mathrm{21cm}} \sim 100^\circ$ are found using $C_\ell^{T_{21} B_\mathrm{CMB}}$ and $C_\ell^{T_{21} B_{21}}$ respectively. Since birefringence hasn't yet been detected in 21cm, we choose the fiducial value $\alpha_\mathrm{21cm}^\mathrm{fid}=0$ assuming the null hypothesis.