Related papers: Does the small CMB quadrupole moment suggest new p…
Several satellite missions have uncovered a series of potential anomalies in the fluctuation spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature, including: (1) an unexpectedly low level of correlation at large angles, manifested via…
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy power on the largest angular scales observed both by WMAP and COBE DMR appears to be lower than the one predicted by the standard model of cosmology with almost scale free primordial…
We investigate the impact of a hypothesized delayed initiation of inflation, characterized by a cutoff k_min to the primordial power spectrum in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This cutoff affects both the scalar and tensor spectra,…
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…
Recent released WMAP data show a low value of quadrupole in the CMB temperature fluctuations, which confirms the early observations by COBE. In this paper we consider a model of two inflatons with different masses, $V(\phi_1,\phi_2)={1\over…
The absence of large-angle correlations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), confirmed by three independent satellite missions, creates significant tension with the standard model of cosmology. Previous work has…
The temperature anisotropy power spectrum measured with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) at high multipoles is in spectacular agreement with an inflationary Lambda-dominated cold dark matter cosmology. However, the low order…
Recent released WMAP data show a low value of quadrupole in the CMB temperature fluctuations, which confirms the early observations by COBE. In this paper, a scenario, in which a contracting phase is followed by an inflationary phase, is…
The remarkable progress in cosmic microwave background (CMB) studies over past decade has led to the era of precision cosmology in striking agreement with the $\Lambda$CDM model. However, the lack of power in the CMB temperature…
The first year of observations by the Planck satellite mission shows that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations are consistent with gaussian statistics in the primordial perturbations, a key prediction of the simplest models of…
The recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements indicate that there is power deficiency of the CMB anisotropies at large scales compared with the $\Lambda$CDM model. We have investigated the possibility of explaining such effects…
Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales $k=0.002$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ and $k=0.0035$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ respectively. We analyze for the first time…
The nearly scale-invariant primordial power spectrum provides the standard initial conditions for cosmological perturbations. However, the largest scales remain only weakly constrained by CMB observations, leaving room for deviations such…
CMB photons travel from the last scattering surface, when the primary CMB has been generated, along the surface of the light cone to us. During their travel, they are affected by many secondary effects such as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe…
The current available CMB data show an anomalously low value of the CMB temperature fluctuations at large angular scales (l < 40). This lack of power is not explained by the minimal LCDM model, and one of the possible mechanisms explored in…
The large-angular-scale falloff in the autocorrelation function for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature has long intrigued cosmologists and fueled speculation about suppressed superhorizon power. Here we highlight an…
We investigate the issue of initial conditions of curvature and tensor perturba- tions at the beginning of slow roll inflation and their effect on the power spectra. Renormalizability and small back reaction constrain the high k behavior of…
Generically,the classical evolution of the inflaton has a brief fast roll stage that precedes the slow roll regime. The fast roll stage leads to a purely attractive potential for the curvature and tensor perturbations (this potential is…
The low quadrupole of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), measured by COBE and confirmed by WMAP, has generated much discussion recently. We point out that the well-known correlation between temperature and polarization anisotropies of…
WMAP and Planck may have uncovered several anomalies in the full CMB sky that could indicate possible new physics driving the growth of density fluctuations in the early Universe. These include an unusually low power at the largest scales…