Related papers: Wandering in the Background: A CMB Explorer
I describe briefly the Cosmic Microwave Background (hereafter CMB) physics which explains why high accuracy observations of its spatial structure are a unique observational tool both for the determination of the global cosmological…
The major contribution to the anisotropy of the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is believed to come from the interaction of linear density perturbations with the radiation previous to the decoupling time.…
Achieving a precise understanding of galaxy formation in a cosmological context is one of the great challenges in theoretical astrophysics, due to the vast range of spatial scales involved in the relevant physical processes. Observations in…
I report on recent developments in the theory of cosmic background radiation perturbations. I describe ways of modeling alternatives to the canonical Gaussian theories within the standard framework of cosmological perturbation theory. Some…
The anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background are a gold mine for cosmology and fundamental physics. ESA's Planck satellite should soon extract all information from the temperature vein but will be limited concerning the measurement…
It is shown that rotational cosmological perturbations can be generated in the early Universe, similarly to gravitational waves. The generating mechanism is quantum-mechanical in its nature, and the created perturbations should now be…
In forthcoming years, connections between cosmology and particle physics will be made increasingly important with the advent of a new generation of cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. Here, we review a number of these links. Our…
We consider a perfectly homogeneous, isotropic and spatially flat universe which undergoes a sudden phase transition producing topological defects. We assume that these defects form a coherent network which scales like the background…
We perform a detailed comparison of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropy with the predictions of quintessence cosmological models of…
The breakdown of statistical homogeneity and isotropy of cosmic perturbations is a generic feature of ultra large scale structure of the cosmos, in particular, of non trivial cosmic topology. The statistical isotropy (SI) of the Cosmic…
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…
Recently high quality data of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies have been published. In this work we study to which extent the cosmological parameters determined by using this data depend on assumptions about the initial…
We describe the subject of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) analysis - its past, present and future. The theory of Gaussian primary anisotropies, those arising from linear physics operating in the early Universe, is in reasonably good…
A new method arising from a gauge-theoretic approach to general relativity is applied to the formation of clusters in an expanding universe. The three cosmological models (Omega_0=1, Omega_Lambda=0), (Omega_0=0.3, Omega_Lambda=0.7),…
The angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contains information on virtually all cosmological parameters of interest, including the geometry of the Universe ($\Omega$), the baryon density, the Hubble constant ($h$),…
Secondary anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) contain information that can be used to test both cosmological models and models of galaxy formation. Starting from lightcone-based HEALPix maps and catalogues, we present a…
Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy have provided evidence for the presence of oscillations in the angular power spectrum. These oscillations are a wonderful confirmation of the standard cosmological scenario…
The Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations provide a powerful probe of the dark ages of the universe through the imprint of the secondary anisotropies associated with the reionisation of the universe and the growth of structure. We review…
We investigate a statistical anisotropy on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bispectrum, which can be generated from the primordial non-Gaussianity induced by quantum fluctuations of a vector field. We find new configurations in the…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation provides a remarkable window onto the early universe, revealing its composition and structure. In these lectures we review and discuss the physics underlying the main features of the CMB.