Related papers: Giant Rings in the CMB Sky
We investigate two possible explanations for the large-angle anomalies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB): an intrinsically anisotropic model and an inhomogeneous model. We take as an example of the former a Bianchi model (which…
The angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy observed by WMAP has an anomalous dip at l~20 and bump at l~40. One explanation for this structure is the presence of features in the primordial curvature…
The motion of the solar system barycenter with respect to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) induces a very large apparent dipole component into the CMB brightness map at the 3 mK level. In this Letter we discuss another kinematic effect…
Analyses of recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations have provided increasing indications for the existence of large scale anisotropy in the universe. Given the far reaching consequences of such an anisotropy for our…
The angular two-point correlation function of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), as inferred from nearly all-sky maps, is very close to zero on large angular scales. A statistic invented to quantify this feature,…
Recent combined analyses of the CMB and galaxy cluster data reveal unexpectedly large and anisotropic peculiar velocity fields at large scales. We study cosmic models with included vorticity, acceleration and total angular momentum of the…
Circular polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) offers the possibility of detecting rotations of the universe and magnetic fields in the primeval universe or in distant clusters of galaxies. We used the Milano Polarimeter…
Cosmological implications of the observed large-scale peculiar velocities are reviewed, alone or combined with redshift surveys and CMB data. The latest version of the POTENT method for reconstructing the underlying three-dimensional…
The observed CMBR dipole, generally interpreted as the consequence of the peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the reference frame of the CMBR, can also be explained by the presence of ultra large scale (of the order of $100H_0^{-1}$)…
Very small mean curvature is a robust prediction of inflation worth rigorous checking. Since current constraints are derived from determinations of the angular-diameter distance to the CMB last-scattering surface, which is also affected by…
The observational behavior of spherically symmetric inhomogeneous cosmological models is studied, which consist of inner and outer homogeneous regions connected by a shell or an intermediate self-similar region. It is assumed that the…
Astronomical observations showed that there may exist a bulk flow with peculiar velocities in the universe, which contradicts with the (\Lambda)CDM model. The bulk flow reveals that the observational universe is anisotropic at large scales.…
We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In…
The 13-16 um region observed by the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) of several ABG stars are discussed. We present and analyse spectra of seven M giants which show carbon dioxide features. To explain the features of the bands, we suggest…
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the sites of star formation in the Galaxy. Many of their properties can be understood in terms of a model in which the GMCs and the star-forming clumps within them are in approximate pressure equilibrium,…
Bouncing models of cosmology, as they arise e.g. in loop quantum cosmology, can be followed by an inflationary phase and generate close-to-scale-invariant fluctuation spectra as observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). However,…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a relic radiation of the Big Bang and as such it contains a wealth of cosmological information. Statistical analyses of the CMB, in conjunction with other cosmological observables, represent some of…
CMB polarization provides a unique window into cosmological inflation; the amplitude of the B-mode polarization from last scattering is uniquely sensitive to the energetics of inflation. However, numerous systematic effects arising from…
We show that perturbations generated during the anisotropic pre-inflationary stage of cosmic evolution may affect cosmological observations today for a certain range of parameters. Due to the anisotropic nature of the universe during such…
We explore the large angular scale temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background due to expanding homogeneous local voids at redshift z~1. A compensated spherically symmetric homogeneous dust-filled void with radius \~3*10^2…