In 2020, a tantalizing hint of new physics violating “parity symmetry” was found in polarization data of the cosmic microwave background obtained with the Planck satellite at high frequencies. Based on the Planck data and a simplified assumption about the impact of the polarized dust emission in the Milky Way, the scientists reported a violation of the symmetry of the laws of physics under inversion of spatial coordinates with 99.2% confidence level. An international team led by MPA director Eiichiro Komatsu has now improved the analysis method. By considering the dust emission explicitly and using more data from not only Planck but also from WMAP the astrophysicists measured the parity-violating signal with 99.987% confidence level. If this should be confirmed in the future as a genuine cosmological signal, it would have profound implications for the fundamental physics behind dark matter, dark energy, and quantum gravity.
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