Nature of dark energy and polarization measurements

Abstract High sensitivity polarization measures, on wide angular scales, together with data on anisotropy, can be used to fix DE parameters. In this paper, first of all, we aim to determine the sensitivity needed to provide significant limits. Our analysis puts in evidence that there is a class of DE models that polarization measures can possibly exclude soon. This class includes models with DE due to a Ratra–Peebles (RP) potential. Using a likelihood analysis, we show that it is possible to distinguish RP models from ΛCDM and other dynamical DE models, already with the sensitivity of experiments like SPOrt or WMAP, thanks to their negative TE correlation at low-l, when the optical depth τ is sufficiently large. On the contrary, fixing the energy scale Λ for RP potentials or distinguishing between ΛCDM and other DE potentials requires a much lower pixel noise, that no planned polarization experiment will achieve. While reviewing this paper after the referee report, the first-year WMAP data were released. WMAP finds large positive anisotropy–polarization correlations at low l; this apparently excludes DE models with RP potentials.