English

Probing the Cosmological Principle with CMB lensing and cosmic shear

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2026-01-12 v3

Abstract

The standard cosmological model assumes the Cosmological Principle. However, recent observations hint at possible violations of isotropy on large scales, possibly through late-time anisotropic expansion. Here we investigate the potential of cross-correlations between CMB lensing convergence κ\kappa and galaxy cosmic shear BB-modes as a novel probe of such late-time anisotropies. Our signal-to-noise forecasts reveal that information from the κ\kappa-BB cross-correlation is primarily contained on large angular scales (200\ell \lesssim 200). We find that this cross-correlation for a Euclid-like galaxy survey is sensitive to anisotropy at the percent level. Making use of tomography yields a modest improvement of 20%\sim 20\% in detection power. Incorporating the galaxy EE-BB cross-correlations would further enhance these constraints.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.07259,
  title  = {Probing the Cosmological Principle with CMB lensing and cosmic shear},
  author = {James Adam and Roy Maartens and Julien Larena and Chris Clarkson and Ruth Durrer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.07259},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Added clarifying remarks on masking effects, the Limber approximation, and axisymmetry. Added Table 3.1 summarising survey inputs. Fixed minor typos. Text matches the version accepted for publication by JCAP