Lensing effect on polarization in microwave background: extracting convergence power spectrum

Abstract

Matter inhomogeneities along the line of sight deflect the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons originating at the last scattering surface at redshift $z \sim 1100$. These distortions modify the pattern of CMB polarization. We identify specific combinations of Stokes $Q$ and $U$ parameters that correspond to spin 0,$\pm 2$ variables and can be used to reconstruct the projected matter density. We compute the expected signal to noise as a function of detector sensitivity and angular resolution. With Planck satellite the detection would be at a few $\sigma$ level. Several times better detector sensitivity would be needed to measure the projected dark matter power spectrum over a wider range of scales, which could provide an independent confirmation of the projected matter power spectrum as measured from other methods.