scholarly journals The Weird Side of the Universe: Preferred Axis

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1760009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Zhao ◽  
Larissa Santos
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Directional Statistics ◽  
Temperature Anisotropy ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cosmological Observations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Universe

In both WMAP and Planck observations on the temperature anisotropy of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation a number of large-scale anomalies were discovered in the past years, including the CMB parity asymmetry in the low multipoles. By defining a directional statistics, we find that the CMB parity asymmetry is directional dependent, and the preferred axis is stable, which means that it is independent of the chosen CMB map, the definition of the statistic, or the CMB masks. Meanwhile, we find that this preferred axis strongly aligns with those of the CMB quadrupole, octopole, as well as those of other large-scale observations. In addition, all of them aligns with the CMB kinematic dipole, which hints to the non-cosmological origin of these directional anomalies in cosmological observations.

The TopHat Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Experiment

2005 ◽  
Vol 201 ◽  
pp. 65-70
Author(s):  
Robert F. Silverberg ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy ◽  
Microwave Background Radiation ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Large Scale Structure Formation

We have developed a balloon-borne experiment to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation anisotropy on angular scales from ˜50° down to ˜20′. The instrument observes at frequencies between 150 and 690 GHz and will be flown on an Antarctic circumpolar long duration flight. To greatly improve the experiment performance, the front-end of the experiment is mounted on the top of the balloon. With high sensitivity, broad sky coverage, and well-characterized systematic errors, the results of this experiment can be used to strongly constrain cosmological models and probe the early stages of large-scale structure formation in the Universe.

scholarly journals Detection of a Cross-correlation between Cosmic Microwave Background Lensing and Low-density Points

2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Fuyu Dong ◽  
Pengjie Zhang ◽  
Le Zhang ◽  
Ji Yao ◽  
Zeyang Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Gravitational Lensing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
Absolute Magnitude ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Large Scale Structures ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract Low-density points (LDPs), obtained by removing high-density regions of observed galaxies, can trace the large-scale structures (LSSs) of the universe. In particular, it offers an intriguing opportunity to detect weak gravitational lensing from low-density regions. In this work, we investigate the tomographic cross-correlation between Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing maps and LDP-traced LSSs, where LDPs are constructed from the DR8 data release of the DESI legacy imaging survey, with about 106–107 galaxies. We find that, due to the large sky coverage (20,000 deg2) and large redshift depth (z ≤ 1.2), a significant detection (10σ–30σ) of the CMB lensing–LDP cross-correlation in all six redshift bins can be achieved, with a total significance of ∼53σ over ℓ ≤ 1024. Moreover, the measurements are in good agreement with a theoretical template constructed from our numerical simulation in the WMAP 9 yr ΛCDM cosmology. A scaling factor for the lensing amplitude A lens is constrained to A lens = 1 ± 0.12 for z < 0.2, A lens = 1.07 ± 0.07 for 0.2 < z < 0.4, and A lens = 1.07 ± 0.05 for 0.4 < z < 0.6, with the r-band absolute magnitude cut of −21.5 for LDP selection. A variety of tests have been performed to check the detection reliability against variations in LDP samples and galaxy magnitude cuts, masks, CMB lensing maps, multipole ℓ cuts, sky regions, and photo-z bias. We also perform a cross-correlation measurement between CMB lensing and galaxy number density, which is consistent with the CMB lensing–LDP cross-correlation. This work therefore further convincingly demonstrates that LDP is a competitive tracer of LSS.

scholarly journals Explaining cosmological anisotropy: evidence for causal horizons from CMB data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Fosalba ◽  
Enrique Gaztañaga
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Cosmological Parameter ◽  
Cosmic Acceleration ◽  
Statistical Fluctuation ◽  
Temperature Anisotropy ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Dark Energy Density ◽  
Observable Universe ◽  
Open Question ◽  
The Universe

Abstract The origin of power asymmetry and other measures of statistical anisotropy on the largest scales of the universe, as manifested in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and large-scale structure data, is a long-standing open question in cosmology. In this paper we analyse the Planck Legacy temperature anisotropy data and find strong evidence for a violation of the Cosmological principle of isotropy, with a probability of being a statistical fluctuation of order ∼10−9. The detected anisotropy is related to large-scale directional ΛCDM cosmological parameter variations across the CMB sky, that are sourced by three distinct patches in the maps with circularly-averaged sizes between 40 to 70 degrees in radius. We discuss the robustness of our findings to different foreground separation methods and analysis choices, and find consistent results from WMAP data when limiting the analysis to the same scales. We argue that these well-defined regions within the cosmological parameter maps may reflect finite and casually disjoint horizons across the observable universe. In particular we show that the observed relation between horizon size and mean dark energy density within a given horizon is in good agreement with expectations from a recently proposed model of the universe that explains cosmic acceleration and cosmological parameter tensions between the high and low redshift universe from the existence of casual horizons within our universe.

scholarly journals Neutrino Mass from Cosmology

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Lesgourgues ◽  
Sergio Pastor
Keyword(s):  
Beta Decay ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay ◽  
Double Beta Decay ◽  
Neutrino Masses ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Complementary Information ◽  
Cosmological Observations ◽  
Cosmological Data ◽  
The Universe

Neutrinos can play an important role in the evolution of the universe, modifying some of the cosmological observables. In this contribution we summarize the main aspects of cosmological relic neutrinos, and we describe how the precision of present cosmological data can be used to learn about neutrino properties, in particular their mass, providing complementary information to beta decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. We show how the analysis of current cosmological observations, such as the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background or the distribution of large-scale structure, provides an upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses of order 1 eV or less, with very good perspectives from future cosmological measurements which are expected to be sensitive to neutrino masses well into the sub-eV range.

scholarly journals WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF THE INITIAL STATE?

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 1341015 ◽  
Author(s):  
NISHANT AGARWAL ◽  
R. HOLMAN ◽  
ANDREW J. TOLLEY
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Quantum State ◽  
Momentum Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Scale Structure ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
The Universe

We argue that a plausible operational definition for an initial state of the universe is the initial quantum state of the curvature perturbations generated during inflation. We provide a parametrization of this state and generalize the standard in–in formalism to incorporate the structures in this state into the computation of correlators of the perturbations. Measurements of these correlators using both the cosmic microwave background as well as large scale structure probe different structures in the initial state, as they give rise to bi- and tri-spectra peaked on different shapes of triangles and quadrilaterals in momentum space. In essence, the shapes implied by the correlators feed directly into information about the shape of the initial state and what physics could have preceded inflation to set this state up.

scholarly journals Are Cosmic Isotropy Limits from Analyses of the Cosmic Microwave Background Credible?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Longo
Keyword(s):  
Angular Momentum ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Parity Violation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Magnetic Moments ◽  
Primordial Black Holes ◽  
Spin Angular Momentum ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Fundamental Symmetry ◽  
The Universe

Recent analyses of cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps have been interpreted as demonstrating that the Universe was born without an initial rotation. However, these analyses are based on unrealistic models and do not contain essential ingredients such as quantum effects, the strong, weak and gravitational interactions between the components, their intrinsic spins and magnetic moments, as well as primordial black holes. If the Universe was born spinning these effects would distribute the initial spin angular momentum among its components long before the CMB forms at recombination. A primordial spin would now appear as a nonzero total angular momentum of its components along the direction of the original spin, and a primordial large-scale rotation would no longer be apparent. The existence of a special axis or direction would break a fundamental symmetry assumed in general relativity, cosmic isotropy, and a net angular momentum implies a cosmic parity violation.

scholarly journals A new golden age: testing general relativity with cosmology

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1957) ◽  
pp. 4941-4946
Author(s):  
Rachel Bean ◽  
Pedro G. Ferreira ◽  
Andy Taylor
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Scale Structure ◽  
Einstein Gravity ◽  
Field Equations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cosmological Observations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Theories Of Gravity ◽  
The Universe

Gravity drives the evolution of the Universe and is at the heart of its complexity. Einstein's field equations can be used to work out the detailed dynamics of space and time and to calculate the emergence of large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies and radiation. Over the past few years, it has become clear that cosmological observations can be used not only to constrain different world models within the context of Einstein gravity but also to constrain the theory of gravity itself. In this article, we look at different aspects of this new field in which cosmology is used to test theories of gravity with a wide range of observations.

scholarly journals Is the Universe homogeneous?

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1957) ◽  
pp. 5115-5137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Maartens
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Light Cone ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Gravity Models ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
The Past ◽  
Galaxy Distribution ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Past Light Cone

The standard model of cosmology is based on the existence of homogeneous surfaces as the background arena for structure formation. Homogeneity underpins both general relativistic and modified gravity models and is central to the way in which we interpret observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the galaxy distribution. However, homogeneity cannot be directly observed in the galaxy distribution or CMB, even with perfect observations, since we observe on the past light cone and not on spatial surfaces. We can directly observe and test for isotropy, but to link this to homogeneity we need to assume the Copernican principle (CP). First, we discuss the link between isotropic observations on the past light cone and isotropic space–time geometry: what observations do we need to be isotropic in order to deduce space–time isotropy? Second, we discuss what we can say with the Copernican assumption. The most powerful result is based on the CMB: the vanishing of the dipole, quadrupole and octupole of the CMB is sufficient to impose homogeneity. Real observations lead to near-isotropy on large scales—does this lead to near-homogeneity? There are important partial results, and we discuss why this remains a difficult open question. Thus, we are currently unable to prove homogeneity of the Universe on large scales, even with the CP. However, we can use observations of the cosmic microwave background, galaxies and clusters to test homogeneity itself.

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