Related papers: Probing non-Gaussianities on Large Scales in WMAP5…
We review the basic hypotheses which motivate the statistical framework used to analyze the cosmic microwave background, and how that framework can be enlarged as we relax those hypotheses. In particular, we try to separate as much as…
ABRIDGED: We introduce and analyze a method for testing statistical isotropy and Gaussianity and apply it to the WMAP CMB foreground reduced, temperature maps, and cross-channel difference maps. We divide the sky into regions of varying…
After the precise observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy power spectrum, attention is now being focused on the higher order statistics of the CMB anisotropies. Since linear evolution preserves the statistical…
We consider a cosmological model with non-Gaussian initial perturbations, which in principle could be generated in non-standard inflationary scenarios with two or more scalar fields. In particular we focus our attention on the model…
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…
Some analyses of recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) data have provided hints that there are deviations from Gaussianity in the WMAP CMB temperature fluctuations. Given the far reaching consequences of such a non-Gaussianity for our…
The first year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) set quantitative constraints on the amplitude of any primordial non-Gaussianity. We run a series of dark matter-only N-body simulations with the WMAP constraints to investigate the…
The presence of non--Gaussian features in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation maps represents one of the most long--awaited clues in the search for the actual structure of the primordial radiation, still needing confirmation.…
Why is non-Gaussianity interesting? One of generic predictions from inflationary scenarios is that primordial fluctuations are exactly Gaussian in linear order; however, the non-linearity in the inflation will produce weak non-Gaussianity.…
We investigate the relative sensitivities of several tests for deviations from Gaussianity in the primordial distribution of density perturbations. We consider models for non-Gaussianity that mimic that which comes from inflation as well as…
Non-Gaussianity in the distribution of inflationary perturbations, measurable in statistics of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure fluctuations, can be used to probe non-trivial initial quantum states for these…
Cosmic microwave background observations are most commonly analyzed by estimating the power spectrum. In the limit where the CMB statistics are perfectly Gaussian, this extracts all the information, but the CMB also contains detectable…
The statistical properties of the temperature anisotropies and polarization of the of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation offer a powerful probe of the physics of the early universe. In recent works a statistical procedure based…
We present a new, model-independent approach for measuring non-Gaussianity of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy pattern. Our approach is based on the empirical distribution function of the normalized spherical harmonic…
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…
The issue of non-Gaussianity is not only related to distinguishing the theories of the origin of primordial fluctuations, but also crucial for the determination of cosmological parameters in the framework of inflation paradigm. We present…
Many inflation models predict that primordial density perturbations have a nonzero three-point correlation function, or bispectrum in Fourier space. Of the several possibilities for this bispectrum, the most commmon is the local-model…
Non-Gaussian distributions of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies have been proposed to reconcile the discrepancies between different experiments at half-degree scales (Coulson et al. 1994). Each experiment probes a different…
Local scaling properties of the co-added foreground-cleaned three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data are estimated using weighted scaling indices. The scaling index method (SIM) is - for the first time - adapted and…
We derive a general expression for the probability of observing deviations from statistical isotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) if the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian and extend to superhorizon scales. The primary…