Stokes Parameters in Cosmic Microwave Background Measurements

We compute numerically the scalar- and tensor-mode induced Stokes parameters of the cosmic microwave background, taking into account basis-rotation effects. It is found that the tensor contribution to the polarization power spectrum becomes enhanced and dominates over the scalar contribution for low multipoles in a universe with or without recombination. Furthermore, we show that all full-sky-averaged two-point cross-correlation functions of the Stokes parameters vanish. We thus comment on the cross-correlation between the anisotropy and polarization of the cosmic microwave background and calculate the expected signal-to-noise ratio for the polarization experiment currently underway.