Related papers: Improved simulation of non-Gaussian temperature an…
Since the first detection by the DASI experiment in 2002, measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have grown into an important role in testing our understanding of conditions in the early universe and…
We introduce a new mathematical tool (a direction-dependent probe) to analyse the randomness of purported isotropic Gaussian random fields on the sphere. We apply the probe to assess the full-sky cosmic microwave background (CMB)…
The non-Gaussianity of inflationary perturbations, as encoded in the bispectrum (or 3-point correlator), has become an important additional way of distinguishing between inflation models, going beyond the linear Gaussian perturbation…
One of the most powerful tools to probe the existence of cosmic defects in the early universe is through the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. It is well known that computations with causal sources are more involved than the…
We study statistical anisotropies generated in the observed two-point function of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations if the primordial statistics are non-Gaussian. Focusing on the dipole modulations of the anisotropies, we…
We estimate the accuracy with which various cosmological parameters can be determined from the CMB temperature and polarization data when various galactic unpolarized and polarized foregrounds are included and marginalized using the…
We study the possibility for constraining the topology of the Universe by means of the matched circles statistic applied to polarised cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy maps. The advantages of using the CMB polarisation maps in…
We compare the performance of multiple codes written by different groups for making polarized maps from Planck-sized, all-sky cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. Three of the codes are based on a destriping algorithm; the other three…
The identification and extraction of non-Gaussian signals is one of the main cosmological challenges facing future experimental measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature pattern. We present a generalized statistical…
The lensing convergence field describing the weak lensing effect of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is expected to be subject to mild deviations from Gaussianity. We perform a suite of full-sky lensing simulations using ray…
Non-Gaussianity of the primordial density perturbations provides an important measure to constrain models of inflation. At cubic order the non-Gaussianity is captured by two parameters $\tau_{\rm NL}$ and $g_{\rm NL}$ that determine the…
We study signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) induced by the presence of strong spatial curvature prior to the epoch of inflation which generated our present universe. If inflation does not last sufficiently long to drive the…
This paper is one of a series describing the performance and accuracy of map-making codes as assessed by the Planck CTP working group. We compare the performance of multiple codes written by different groups for making polarized maps from…
We analyse the Planck full-mission cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and E-mode polarization maps to obtain constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity (NG). We compare estimates obtained from separable template-fitting, binned,…
We present a new method for measuring the CMB temperature quadrupole, using large scale CMB polarization. The method exploits the fact that CMB polarization is partially sourced by the local temperature quadrupole. We link the temperature…
We describe and discuss the application of Gumbel statistics, which model extreme events, to WMAP 5-year measurements of the cosmic microwave background. We find that temperature extrema of the CMB are well modelled by the Gumbel formalism…
The Quadratic Maximum Likelihood estimator can be used to reconstruct the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) power spectra with minimal error bars. Still, it requires an accurate estimate of the datasets noise covariance matrix in order to…
To efficiently probe primordial non-Gaussianity using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data, we require theoretical predictions that are factorizable, \textit{i.e.}\ those whose kinematic dependence can be separated. This property does not…
We review the theory of the temperature anisotropy and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and describe what we have learned from current CMB observations. In particular, we discuss how the CMB is being used to…
This article describes the computation of cosmic microwave background anisotropies in a universe with multi-connected spatial sections and focuses on the implementation of the topology in standard CMB computer codes. The key ingredient is…