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The cosmic microwave background is relic thermal radiation from the hot early universe. Its temperature anisotropy is expanded in spherical harmonics, with angular power spectrum $C_{\ell }^{TT}$. Thomson scattering of a local radiation quadrupole generates linear polarization around last scattering and again during reionization. Polarization maps are decomposed into E-mode polarization and B-mode polarization, giving spectra such as $EE$, $TE$ and $BB$ in addition to temperature information.

Cosmic microwave background acoustic peak positions compare the sound horizon with the angular-diameter distance to last scattering, constraining geometry and expansion history. Relative peak heights constrain baryon loading and matter-radiation equality; the damping tail constrains diffusion and other early-universe physics. The scalar spectral index and primordial scalar amplitude constrain inflationary perturbations. Coherent acoustic structure and temperature-polarization correlations support predominantly adiabatic initial perturbations. Large-angle E-mode polarization measures the reionization optical depth, helping break its degeneracy with the scalar amplitude inferred from small-scale temperature anisotropy.

Under a specified cosmological model, these data constrain ordinary and cold dark matter densities, the Hubble constant, spatial curvature and cosmic age. Complementary distance information helps break the geometrical degeneracy: temperature peaks alone do not uniquely establish a cosmological constant. The Planck 2013 parameter analysis used Planck temperature data and, in important combinations, WMAP low-multipole polarization; it should not be described as a full Planck polarization release.^[ref]

Linear scalar cosmological perturbations generate E-mode polarization but no primordial B-mode polarization in the simplest treatment. tensor cosmological perturbations can generate B-mode polarization, making them a possible probe of inflationary gravitational waves. gravitational lensing converts some E-mode power into B-mode polarization, however, and Galactic dust and synchrotron radiation also contribute polarized foregrounds. Multifrequency observations, foreground modelling, beam calibration and control of temperature-to-polarization leakage are therefore necessary. Polarization does not by itself establish a primordial tensor signal. temperature and polarization jointly test the expansion history and primordial perturbations, while complementary data and foreground control determine how uniquely parameters can be inferred.