Related papers: Local analyses of Planck maps with Minkowski Funct…
Secondary contributions to the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), such as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (tSZ), and the effect of gravitational lensing, have distinctive…
In order to test for non-Gaussianities with respect to scale-dependencies we use so-called surrogate maps, in which possible phase correlations of the Fourier phases of the original WMAP data and simulations, respectively, are destroyed by…
We present a new harmonic-domain approach for extracting morphological information, in the form of Minkowski Functionals (MFs), from weak lensing (WL) convergence maps. Using a perturbative expansion of the MFs, which is expected to be…
We test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also…
We use Minkowski Functionals to explore the presence of non-Gaussian signatures in simulated cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps. Precisely, we analyse the non-Gaussianities produced from the angular power spectra emerging from a class…
The identification of non-Gaussian signatures in cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature maps is one of the main cosmological challenges today. We propose and investigate altenative methods to analyse CMB maps. Using the technique of…
We present an analysis of the Minkowski Functionals (MFs) describing the WMAP three-year temperature maps to place limits on possible levels of primordial non-Gaussianity. In particular, we apply perturbative formulae for the MFs to give…
[Abridged]: A detection or nondetection of primordial non-Gaussianity by using the CMB data is crucial not only to discriminate inflationary models but also to test alternative scenarios. Non-Gaussianity offers, therefore, a powerful probe…
In this paper, we investigate the utility of Minkowski Functionals as a probe of cold/hot disk-like structures in the CMB. In order to construct an accurate estimator, we resolve a long-standing issue with the use of Minkowski Functionals…
In this paper we present a new method to estimate a foreground cleaned Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map at a resolution of $1^\circ$ by minimizing the non-Gaussian properties of the cleaned map which arise dominantly due to diffuse…
The study of the angular power spectrum of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies, both in intensity and in polarisation, has led to the tightest constraints on cosmological parameters. However, this statistical quantity is not…
We present a novel approach to quantifying the morphology of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy maps. As morphological descriptors, we use shape parameters known as Minkowski functionals. Using the mathematical framework provided…
We search the BOOMERanG maps of the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) for deviations from gaussianity. In this paper we focus on analysis techniques in pixel-space, and compute skewness, kurtosis and Minkowski functionals…
We introduce an exact Bayesian approach to search for non-Gaussianity of local type in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation data. Using simulated CMB temperature maps, the newly developed technique is compared against the…
CMB polarization data is usually analyzed using $E$ and $B$ modes because they are scalars quantities under rotations along the lines of sight and have distinct physical origins. We explore the possibility of using the Stokes parameters $Q$…
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)…
We study two different methods to test Gaussianity in CMB maps. One of them is based on the partition function and the other on the morphology of hot and cold spots. The partition function contains information on all the moments and scales,…
Minkowski functionals (MFs) quantify the topological properties of a given field probing its departure from Gaussianity. We investigate their use on lensing convergence maps in order to see whether they can provide further insights on the…
The presence of astrophysical emissions between the last scattering surface and our vantage point requires us to apply a foreground mask on CMB sky map, leading to large cut around the Galactic equator and numerous holes. Since many CMB…
The small but measurable effect of weak gravitational lensing on the cosmic microwave background radiation provide information about the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. We use the all sky distribution of matter, as…