Related papers: The Shape of Space after WMAP data
The standard cosmological model posits a spatially flat universe of infinite extent. However, no observation, even in principle, could verify that the matter extends to infinity. In this work we model the universe as a finite spherical ball…
We impose constraints on the topology of the Universe determined from a search for matched circles in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy patterns of the 7-year WMAP data. We pay special attention to the sensitivity…
The properties of universes are explored that are entirely in the interior of black holes in another universe, a `mother universe'. It is argued that these models offer a paradigm that may shed a new light on old cosmological problems. The…
Suppose we have identified three clusters of galaxies as being topological copies of the same object. How does this information constrain the possible models for the shape of our Universe? It is shown here that, if the Universe has flat…
We consider the most general parametrization of flat topologically compact universes, complementing the work of Scannapieco, Levin and Silk to include non-trivial shapes. We find that modifications in shape of the fundamental domain will…
This talk, presented at the 5th Rencontres du Vietnam 2004, gives a review of the cosmological implications of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. The observational progress that has been made over the past decade is discussed and…
[Abridged] An observable signature of a detectable nontrivial spatial topology of the Universe is the circles-in-the-sky in the CMB sky. In the most general search, pairs of circles with deviation from antipodality $0^\circ \leq \theta \leq…
We study the possibility that the universe has compact topologies T^3, T^2 x R^1, or S^1 x R^2 using the seven-year WMAP data. The maximum likelihood 95% confidence intervals for the size L of the compact direction are 1.7 < L/L_0 < 2.1,…
Cosmology is undergoing an explosive period of activity, fueled both by new, accurate astrophysical data and by innovative theoretical developments. Cosmological parameters such as the total density of the Universe and the rate of…
The two fundamental assumptions in cosmology are that the Universe is statistically homogeneous and isotropic when averaged on large scales. Given the big implication of these assumptions, there has been a lot of statistical tests carried…
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which permeates the entire Universe, is the radiation left over from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang. On very large scales, the CMB radiation field is smooth and isotropic, but the existence of…
We compute the covariance expected between the spherical harmonic coefficients $a_{\ell m}$ of the cosmic microwave temperature anisotropy if the universe had a compact topology. For fundamental cell size smaller than the distance to the…
Cosmic shear is the distortion of images of distant galaxies due to weak gravitational lensing by the large-scale structure in the Universe. Such images are coherently deformed by the tidal field of matter inhomogeneities along the line of…
The properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation provide unique constraints on cosmological models, i.e. on the content, history, and evolution of the Universe. I discuss the latest measurements of the spectral and spatial…
We show that the difference between the theoretically expected and measured by WMAP amplitude of the quadrupole fluctuations of CMB can be related to the impact of the anisotropic curvature of the homogeneous universe dominated by the dark…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization observations indicate that in the best-fit $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter model of the Universe, the local geometry is consistent with at most a small amount of positive or negative…
Recently, the cosmological tensions, $H_0$ and $S_8$ in particular, have inspired modification of both pre- and postrecombination physics simultaneously. Early dark energy is a promising pre-recombination solution of the $H_0$ tension,…
We present an update to the search for a non-trivial topology of the universe by searching for matching circle pairs in the cosmic microwave background using the WMAP 7 year data release. We extend the exisiting bounds to encompass a wider…
One of the FLRW models that best fits the WMAP sky maps of the CMB is the Poincare dodecahedral space. The optimal fit of this model to WMAP data was recently found using an optimal cross-correlation method, but the systematic error in the…
It is well known that observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are highly sensitive to the spatial curvature of the Universe, k. Here we find that what is in fact being tightly constrained by small angle fluctuations is spatial…