English

Orbifold Line Topology and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2013-10-25 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We extend our study of a universe with a non-classical stringy topology, and consider an orbifold line topology, R×R2/Zp\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^2/\mathbb{Z}_p. This topology has a fixed line and identifies each point in space with p1p-1 other points. An observable imprint of an orbifold line on the CMB is the appearance of up to (p1)/2(p-1)/2 pairs of matching circles. Searching the WMAP data for matching circles, we can rule out an orbifold line topology with pp up to 10, except for p=8p=8. While the significance of the peak at p=8p=8 varies between data releases of WMAP, it does not appear in Planck data, enabling us to rule out p=8p=8 as well.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1302.7161,
  title  = {Orbifold Line Topology and the Cosmic Microwave Background},
  author = {Ben Rathaus and Assaf Ben-David and Nissan Itzhaki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.7161},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

7 pages, 6 figures. Published in JCAP