English

CMB Anomalies after Planck

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2016-09-07 v1

Abstract

Several unexpected features have been observed in the microwave sky at large angular scales, both by WMAP an by Planck. Among those features is a lack of both variance and correlation on the largest angular scales, alignment of the lowest multipole moments with one another and with the motion and geometry of the Solar System, a hemispherical power asymmetry or dipolar power modulation, a preference for odd parity modes and an unexpectedly large cold spot in the Southern hemisphere. The individual p-values of the significance of these features are in the per mille to per cent level, when compared to the expectations of the best-fit inflationary Λ\LambdaCDM model. Some pairs of those features are demonstrably uncorrelated, increasing their combined statistical significance and indicating a significant detection of CMB features at angular scales larger than a few degrees on top of the standard model. Despite numerous detailed investigations, we still lack a clear understanding of these large-scale features, which seem to imply a violation of statistical isotropy and scale invariance of inflationary perturbations. In this contribution we present a critical analysis of our current understanding and discuss several ideas of how to make further progress.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1510.07929,
  title  = {CMB Anomalies after Planck},
  author = {Dominik J. Schwarz and Craig J. Copi and Dragan Huterer and Glenn D. Starkman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1510.07929},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

35 pages, 9 figures, draft for a contribution to Planck focus issue in Classical and Quantum Gravity

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:30:05.398Z