Related papers: Relic Vector Field and CMB Large Scale Anomalies
We consider some consequences of the presence of a cosmological lepton asymmetry in the form of neutrinos. A relic neutrino degeneracy enhances the contribution of massive neutrinos to the present energy density of the Universe, and…
We study the generation of primordial perturbations in a (single-field) slow-roll inflationary universe. In momentum space, these (Gaussian) perturbations are characterized by a zero mean and a non-zero variance $\Delta^2(k, t)$. However,…
We explore a model of the early universe in which the inflationary epoch is preceded by a cosmic bounce, and argue that this scenario provides a common origin to several of the anomalous features that have been observed at large angular…
This research demonstrates that parity violation in general relativity can simultaneously explain the observed loss in power and alignment at a preferred axis ('Axis of Evil')in the low multipole moments of the WMAP data. This observational…
We analyze the effect of foregrounds on the observed alignment of CMBR quadrupole and octopole. The alignment between these multipoles is studied by using a symmetry based approach which assigns a principal eigenvector (PEV) or an axis with…
Inflationary models predict a correlation between primordial density perturbations (scalar metric perturbations) and gravitational waves (tensor metric perturbations) in the form of a scalar-scalar-tensor three-point correlation, or…
We extend the curvaton scenario presented by Erickcek et al. (2008, 2009), to explain how the even-odd multipole asymmetry of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) (also called parity asymmetry, (Kim & Naselsky 2010)) and power anisotropies…
The lack of power of large--angle CMB anisotropies is known to increase its statistical significance at higher Galactic latitudes, where a string--inspired pre--inflationary scale $\Delta$ can also be detected. Considering the Planck 2015…
We address the effect of an extended local foreground on the low-l anomalies found in the CMB. Recent X-ray catalogues point us to the existence of very massive superstructures at the 100 h^(-1) Mpc scale that contribute significantly to…
I elaborate on a link between the string--scale breaking of supersymmetry that occurs in a class of superstring models and the onset of inflation. The link rests on spatially flat cosmologies supported by a scalar field driven by an…
We investigate the impact of peculiar velocity effects due to the motion of the solar system relative to the microwave background (CMB) on high resolution CMB experiments. It is well known that on the largest angular scales the combined…
We reconsider the observed CMB dipolar asymmetry in the context of open inflation, where a supercurvature mode might survive the bubble nucleation. If such a supercurvature mode modulates the amplitude of the curvature power spectrum, it…
We analyse the efficiency of future large scale structure surveys to unveil the presence of scale dependent features in the primordial spectrum --resulting from cosmic inflation-- imprinted in the distribution of galaxies. Features may…
Extending our previous work on the robustness of inflation to perturbations in the scalar field, we investigate the effects of perturbations in the transverse traceless part of the extrinsic curvature on the evolution of an inhomogeneous…
The four-point correlation function of primordial scalar perturbations has parity-even and parity-odd contributions and the parity-odd signal in cosmological observations is opening a novel window to look for new physics in the inflationary…
We investigate the perturbation theory of a fixed-norm, timelike Lorentz-violating vector field. After consistently quantizing the vector field to put constraints on its parameters, we compute the primordial spectra of perturbations…
[Abridged] A sharp cut-off in the primordial scalar power spectrum on large scales has been known to improve the fit to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data when compared to the more standard, nearly scale invariant power spectrum…
Using the techniques of out-of-equilibrium field theory, we study the influence on the properties of cosmological perturbations generated during inflation on observable scales coming from fluctuations corresponding today to scales much…
We reconsider trans-Planckian corrections to inflationary spectra by taking into account a physical effect which has been overlooked and which could have important consequences. We assume that the short length scale characterizing the new…
Large-scale anomalies have been reported in CMB data with both WMAP and Planck data. These could be due to foreground residuals and or systematic effects, though their confirmation with Planck data suggests they are not due to a problem in…