A robust constraint on cosmic textures from the cosmic microwave background
Abstract
Fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contain information which has been pivotal in establishing the current cosmological model. These data can also be used to test well-motivated additions to this model, such as cosmic textures. Textures are a type of topological defect that can be produced during a cosmological phase transition in the early universe, and which leave characteristic hot and cold spots in the CMB. We apply Bayesian methods to carry out a rigorous test of the texture hypothesis, using full-sky data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. We conclude that current data do not warrant augmenting the standard cosmological model with textures. We rule out at 95% confidence models that predict more than 6 detectable cosmic textures on the full sky.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1203.1928,
title = {A robust constraint on cosmic textures from the cosmic microwave background},
author = {Stephen M. Feeney and Matthew C. Johnson and Daniel J. Mortlock and Hiranya V. Peiris},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.1928},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figures. v2: replaced with version accepted by PRL (minor amendments to reduce length and address referee comments)