A Hint Of New Physics In Polarized Radiation From The Early Universe Press Release - Source: KAVLI INSTITUTE FOR THE PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS OF THE UNIVERSE
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As the light of the cosmic microwave background emitted 13.8 billion years ago (left image) travels through the Universe until observed on Earth (right image), the direction in which the electromagnetic wave oscillates (orange line) is rotated by an angle β. The rotation could be caused by dark matter or dark energy interacting with the light of the cosmic microwave background, which changes the patterns of polarization (black lines inside the images). The red and blue regions in the images show hot and cold regions of the cosmic microwave background, respectively. CREDIT Y. Minami / KEK