Effects of Cosmological Magnetic Helicity on the Cosmic Microwave Background

Abstract

Cosmological magnetic fields induce temperature and polarization fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. A cosmological magnetic field with current amplitude of order $10^{-9}$ G is detectable via observations of CMB anisotropies. This magnetic field (with or without helicity) generates vector perturbations through vortical motions of the primordial plasma. This paper shows that magnetic field helicity induces parity-odd cross correlations between CMB temperature and $B$-polarization fluctuations and between $E$- and $B$-polarization fluctuations, correlations which are zero for fields with no helicity (or for any parity-invariant source). Helical fields also contribute to parity-even temperature and polarization anisotropies, cancelling part of the contribution from the symmetric component of the magnetic field. We give analytic approximations for all CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy vector power spectra due to helical magnetic fields. These power spectra offer a method for detecting cosmological helical magnetic fields, particularly when combined with Faraday rotation measurements which are insensitive to helicity.