Related papers: Cosmic Strings as the Source of Small-Scale Microw…
We describe a new code to search for signatures of cosmic strings in cosmic microwave anisotropy maps. The code implements the Canny Algorithm, an edge detection algorithm designed to search for the lines of large gradients in maps. Such a…
Overall, brane inflation is compatible with the recent analysis of the WMAP data. Here we explore the constraints of WMAP and 2dFGRS data on the various brane inflationary scenarios. Brane inflation naturally ends with the production of…
Axion strings are horizon-size topological defects that may be produced in the early Universe. Ultra-light axion-like particles may form strings that persist to temperatures below that of big bang nucleosynthesis. Such strings have been…
Much recent work on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has focussed on the angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropies and particularly on the recovery of cosmological parameters from acoustic peaks in the power spectrum. However,…
While the arcminute-scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies are due to secondary effects, point sources dominate the total anisotropy power spectrum. At high frequencies the point sources are primarily in the form of dusty,…
A primordial stochastic background of very weakly coupled massless (pseudo-)scalars can seed CMB anisotropy, when large-scale fluctuations of their stress-tensor re-enter the horizon during the matter-dominated era. A general relation…
We use analytic calculations of the post-recombination gravitational effects of cosmic strings to estimate the resulting CMB power spectrum, bispectrum and trispectrum. We place a particular emphasis on multipole regimes relevant for…
Brane inflation in superstring theory predicts that cosmic strings (but not domain walls or monopoles) are produced towards the end of the inflationary epoch. Here, we discuss the production, the spectrum and the evolution of such cosmic…
In this letter we investigate whether the isotropy problem is naturally solved in inflationary cosmologies inspired by string theory, so called pre-big-bang cosmologies. We find that, in contrast to what happens in the more common…
The COBE satellite has discovered anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) consistent with a scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations. As reviewed in this lecture, topological defect models of structure formation…
We find that current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy data strongly constrain the mean spatial curvature of the Universe to be near zero, or, equivalently, the total energy density to be near critical-as predicted by inflation.…
Thermal inflation was proposed as a mechanism to dilute the density of cosmological moduli. Thermal inflation is driven by a complex scalar field possessing a large vacuum expectation value and a very flat potential, called a `flaton'. Such…
The genuine quantum gravity effects can already be around us. It is likely that the observed large-angular-scale anisotropies in the microwave background radiation are induced by cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin. Such…
The leading candidate for the very early universe is described by a period of rapid expansion known as inflation. While the standard paradigm invokes a single slow-rolling field, many different models may be constructed which fit the…
High resolution maps of the anisotropy of the microwave sky will yield invaluable clues as to the mechanisms involved in cosmic structure formation. One fundamental question they should answer is whether the fluctuations were Gaussian…
In a recent publication, we used the data from WMAP and SDSS to constrain the primordial perturbations and to predict the B-mode polarization sourced by cosmic string networks. We have been alerted by A. Slosar to the existence of errors in…
Several anomalies appear to be present in the large-angle cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy maps of WMAP. One of these is a lack of large-scale power. Because the data otherwise match standard models extremely well, it is natural…
We calculate the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode power spectrum resulting from anisotropic cosmic birefringence, without relying on the thin approximation of the last scattering surface. Specifically, we consider the influence of…
The effect of gravitational lensing on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies is investigated using the power spectrum approach. The lensing effect can be calculated in any cosmological model by specifying the evolution of…
Inflation provides a unified paradigm for understanding the isotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the flatness problem, and the origin of large-scale structure. Although the physics responsible for inflation is not yet well…