Asymmetries in the local curvature of the WMAP data
Astrophysics
2010-04-06 v1
Abstract
We use the local curvature to investigate the possible existence of non-Gaussianity/asymmetry in the WMAP data. Considering the full sky we find results which are consistent with the Gaussian assumption. However, strong non-Gaussian features emerge when considering the northern and southern galactic hemisphere separately, particularly on scales between 1 and 5 degrees. Quite interestingly, the maximum non-Gaussianity is found for hemispheres centered near the ecliptic poles, which might suggest the presence of some systematic effect. The direction of the asymmetry seems consistent with the findings by Eriksen et al. 2004.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0402396,
title = {Asymmetries in the local curvature of the WMAP data},
author = {Frode K. Hansen and Paolo Cabella and Domenico Marinucci and Nicola Vittorio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0402396},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Submitted to ApJ Letters