Circular polarization of the cosmic microwave background induced by the optical Magnus effect on gravitational lensing

Abstract

Polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) brings out information not only on the early universe but also on the late-time large-scale structure via weak gravitational lensing. Here, we show that circular polarization is induced in principle from CMB temperature fluctuations when the optical Magnus effect is incorporated into gravitational lensing. This is a consequence of the transverse shift of a trajectory of light depending on its helicity that requires right-handed and left-handed components at the same observation point to be sourced from different points of the surface of last scattering. Whereas the resulting circular polarization is found far beyond the scope of current detection, our work establishes the optical Magnus effect on gravitational lensing as a new fundamental mechanism to produce circular polarization of CMB.