Related papers: Nonlinear Effects in the Cosmic Microwave Backgrou…
We challenge the widely held belief that the cosmological principle is an obvious consequence of the observed isotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, combined with the Copernican principle. We perform a detailed analysis of a…
In this thesis, we discuss several instances in which non-linear behaviour affects cosmological evolution in the early Universe. We begin by reviewing the standard cosmological model and the tools used to understand it theoretically and to…
Working toward a model independent understanding of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and their significance, we undertake a comprehensive and self-contained study of scalar perturbation theory. Initial conditions, evolution,…
The redshift dependence of the cosmic microwave background temperature, $T(z)=T_0(1+z)$, is a key prediction of standard cosmology, but this relation is violated in many extensions thereof. Current astrophysical facilities can probe it in…
The description of the transport of cosmic rays in magnetized media is central to both acceleration and propagation of these particles in our Galaxy and outside. The investigation of the process of particle acceleration, especially at shock…
We study the complex visibilities of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies that are observables in interferometric observations of the cosmic microwave background, using the multipole expansion methods commonly adopted in analyzing…
Primordial oscillatory features in the power spectrum of curvature perturbations are sensitive probes of the dynamics of the early Universe and can provide insights beyond the standard inflationary scenario. While these features have been…
This article describes the theory of cosmological perturbations around a homogeneous and anisotropic universe of the Bianchi I type. Starting from a general parameterisation of the perturbed spacetime a la Bardeen, a complete set of gauge…
We present an analysis of the cosmological evolution of matter sources with small anisotropic pressures. This includes electric and magnetic fields, collisionless relativistic particles, gravitons, antisymmetric axion fields in low-energy…
Cosmological perturbation theory is a key tool to study the universe. The linear or first order theory is well understood, however, developing and applying the theory beyond linear order is at the cutting edge of current research in…
Precision measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and of the clustering of large-scale structure have supposedly confirmed that the primordial density perturbation has a (nearly) scale-invariant spectrum. However…
I explain the origin and evolution of anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and argue that upcoming experiments will measure cosmological and fundamental parameters very accurately. Most of the paper focuses on present data,…
In addition to shear and vorticity a homogeneous background may also exhibit anisotropic curvature. Here a class of spacetimes is shown to exist where the anisotropy is solely of the latter type, and the shear-free condition is supported by…
We summarize the theoretical and observational status of the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Its thermodynamic spectrum is a robust prediction of the Hot Big Bang cosmology and has been confirmed observationally. There…
The cosmic microwave background temperature is a cornerstone astrophysical observable. Its present value is tightly constrained, but its redshift dependence, which can now be determined until redshift $z\sim6.34$, is also an important probe…
The cosmic microwave background anisotropies produced by active seeds, such as topological defects, have been computed recently for a variety of models by a number of authors. In this paper we show how the generic features of the…
We study the effect of a stochastic background of gravitational waves on the gravitational lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. It has been shown that matter density inhomogeneities produce a smoothing of the acoustic…
Why is non-Gaussianity interesting? One of generic predictions from inflationary scenarios is that primordial fluctuations are exactly Gaussian in linear order; however, the non-linearity in the inflation will produce weak non-Gaussianity.…
Combined analyses of WMAP 3-year and ACBAR Cosmic Microwave Anisotropies angular power spectra have presented evidence for gravitational lensing >3 sigma level. This signal could provide a relevant test for cosmology. After evaluating and…
Polarization induced by cosmological scalar perturbations leads to a typical anisotropy pattern, which can best be analyzed in Fourier domain. This allows one to unambiguously distinguish cosmological signal of polarization from other…