Related papers: COBE vs Cosmic Strings: An Analytical Model

We present the first complete Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis of cosmological models with evolving cosmic (super)string networks, using the unconnected segment model in the unequal-time correlator formalism. For ordinary cosmic string…

We find the constraints from WMAP and SDSS data on the fraction of cosmological fluctuations sourced by local cosmic strings using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis. In addition to varying the usual 6 cosmological parameters and…

We calculate a signature of cosmic strings in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We find that ionization in the wakes behind moving strings gives rise to extra polarization in a set of rectangular patches in the sky…

Recent data from the WMAP, ACT and SPT experiments provide precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature power spectrum over a wide range of angular scales. The combination of these observations is well fit by the…

The recombination history of the Universe depends exponentially on the temperature, T_0, of the cosmic microwave background. Therefore tiny changes of T_0 are expected to lead to significant changes in the free electron fraction. Here we…

We study the problem of searching for cosmic string signal patterns in the present high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This article discusses a technique capable of recognizing…

We study the effect of weak lensing by cosmic (super-)strings on the anisotropies of cosmic microwave background (CMB). In developing a method to calculate the lensing convergence field due to strings, and thereby temperature and…

We derive a general procedure for calculating the gravitational wave background (GWB) from cosmic string loops whose typical shape evolves over time, as in gravitational backreaction. Using the results of a large-scale study of numerical…

We introduce a simple yet powerful {\it analytic} method which obtains the structure of cosmic microwave background anisotropies to better than 5-10\% in temperature fluctuations on {\it all} scales. It is applicable to {\it any} model in…

During cosmic recombination, charged particles bind into neutral atoms and the mean free path of photons rapidly increases, resulting in the familiar diffusion damping of primordial radiation temperature variations. An additional effect is…

Making use of the wealth of new observational data coming from the sky it is possible to constrain particle physics theories beyond the Standard Model. One way to do this is illustrated in this article: a subset of theories admits cosmic…

Empirical estimates of the band power covariance matrix are commonly used in cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum analyses. While this approach easily captures correlations in the data, noise in the resulting covariance estimate…

We provide an analytical expression for the trispectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies induced by cosmic strings. Our result is derived for the small angular scales under the assumption that the…

We perform the stastistics of temperature maxima and minima in COBE-DMR 2-year maps. For power-law spectra the surface distribution of peaks implies an amplitude consistent with more conventional analyses of COBE data (for instance, we get…

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…

Searches for primordial gravitational waves have resulted in constraints in a large frequency range from a variety of sources. The standard Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) technique is to parameterise the tensor power spectrum in terms of…

We introduce a new technique to detect the discrete temperature steps that cosmic strings might have left in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy map. The technique provides a validity test on the pattern search of cosmic…

The problem of separation of different signals in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation using the difference in their statistics is analyzed. Considering samples of sequences which model the CMB as a superposition of signals, we…

We show how observations of temperature fluctuations in cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be used to extract information related to the large scale structure, including dark matter distribution, pressure and halo velocities involving…

Cosmic strings are predicted in many models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In models which admit strings, a network of strings will inevitably be formed in a phase transition in the early universe and will persist to the…