Related papers: The Signature of Proper Motion in the Microwave Sk…
We show the existence of spatially homogeneous but anisotropic cosmological models whose cosmic microwave background temperature is exactly isotropic at one instant of time but whose rate of expansion is highly anisotropic. The existence of…
Despite the fact that the physics of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies is most naturally expressed in Fourier space, pixelised maps are almost always used in the analysis and simulation of microwave data. A complementary approach…
The very basics of cosmological inflation are discussed. We derive the equations of motion for the inflaton field, introduce the slow-roll parameters, and present the computation of the inflationary perturbations and their connection to the…
Weak lensing distortion of the background cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization patterns by the foreground density fluctuations is well studied in the literature. We discuss the gravitational lensing modification to…
The scalar mode temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background has been derived in a spatially closed universe from two different methods. First, by following the photon trajectory after the last scattering and then from the…
I present a briefly summary of the current status of inflationary models versus topological defects scenarios, as the mechanisms which could have induced the initial density perturbations, which left an imprint on the cosmic microwave…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies exhibit a large-scale dipolar power asymmetry. To determine whether this is due to a real, physical modulation or is simply a large statistical fluctuation requires the…
The blackbody radiation left over from the Big Bang has been transformed by the expansion of the Universe into the nearly isotropic 2.73K Cosmic Microwave Background. Tiny inhomogeneities in the early Universe left their imprint on the…
An observer moving with respect to the cosmic rest frame should observe a concentration and brightening of galaxies in the direction of motion and a spreading and dimming in the opposite direction. The velocity inferred from this dipole…
A stochastic magnetic field in the early Universe will produce anisotropies in the temperature and polarization of the cosmic microwave background. We derive analytic expressions for the microwave background temperature and polarization…
We study the angular distribution of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to probe the statistical isotropy of the universe by using precise full-sky CMB data with a model-independent approach. We investigated…
The possibility to constrain fractal space dimensionality from Astrophysics and other areas is briefly reviewed. Assuming such dimensionality to be $3 + \epsilon$, a limit to $\epsilon$ can be inferred from COBE satellite data. The…
Temperature and polarization variations across the microwave sky include the fingerprints of quantum fluctuations in the early universe. They may soon reveal physics at unprecedented energy scales.
Statistically anomalous signals in the microwave background have been extensively studied in general in multipole space, and in real space mainly for circular and other simple patterns. In this paper we search for a range of non-trivial…
We present the main scientific goals and characteristics of the ESA Planck satellite mission, as well as the main features of the survey strategy and simulated performance in terms of measuring the temperature and polarization of the Cosmic…
The peculiar motion of an observer with respect to the CMB rest frame induces an apparent deflection of the observed CMB photons, {\it i.e.} aberration, and a shift in their frequency, {\it i.e.} Doppler effect. Both effects distort the…
All-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations are usually represented by a spherical harmonic decomposition involving modes labelled by their degree l and order m (where -l < m < +l). The zonal modes (i.e those…
The cosmic microwave background temperature is a cornerstone astrophysical observable. Its present value is tightly constrained, but its redshift dependence, which can now be determined until redshift $z\sim6.34$, is also an important probe…
The peculiar motion of massive objects across the line of sight imprints a dipolar temperature anisotropy pattern on the cosmic microwave background known as the moving lens effect. This effect provides a unique probe of the transverse…
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…