Unveiling V modes: enhancing CMB sensitivity to BSM physics with a non-ideal half-wave plate

Abstract V-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background is expected to be vanishingly small in the ΛCDM model and, hence, usually ignored. Nonetheless, several astrophysical effects, as well as beyond standard model physics could produce it at a detectable level. A realistic half-wave plate — an optical element commonly used in CMB experiments to modulate the polarized signal — can provide sensitivity to V modes without significantly spoiling that to linear polarization. We assess this sensitivity for some new-generation CMB experiments, such as the LiteBIRD satellite, the ground-based Simons Observatory and a CMB-S4-like experiment. We forecast the efficiency of these experiments to constrain the phenomenology of certain classes of BSM models inducing mixing of linear polarization states and generation of V modes in the CMB. We find that new-generation experiments can improve current limits by 1-to-3 orders of magnitude, depending on the data combination. The inclusion of V-mode information dramatically boosts the sensitivity to these BSM models.