Reconstruction of the primordial fluctuation spectrum from the five-year WMAP data by the cosmic inversion method with band-power decorrelation analysis
The primordial curvature fluctuation spectrum is reconstructed by the cosmic inversion method using the five-year WMAP data of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy. We apply the covariance matrix analysis and decompose the reconstructed spectrum into statistically independent band-powers. The statistically significant deviation from a simple power-law spectrum suggested by the analysis of the first-year data is not found in the five-year data except possibly at one point near the border of the wavenumber domain where accurate reconstruction is possible.
We demonstrate that combining Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy measurements from the 1st year WMAP observations with clustering data from the SLOAN galaxy redshift survey yields an indication for primordial anisotropies in the cosmological Neutrino Background.
It seems that new WMAP data requires a fit with a primordial spectrum containig small negative tilt index in addition to the featureless Harrison-Zeldovich- Peebles spectrum thus implying a broken scale invariance. We show that the data could be otherwise interpreted by a scale invariant primordial spectrum with the scale non-invariant evolution of density contrast using the Press-Schechter formalism. The estimate of the acceleration parameter, as a source of the inhomogeneity of spacetime, is made by searching for the minima of the deviation measure defined by the Press-Schechter mass functio…
We find the condition that the primordial baryon asymmetry is not washed out in the $SU(2)_{L}$ triplet Higgs model by solving the Boltzmann equation. We further require that the model is compatible with the recent results of the neutrino oscillation experiments and WMAP, and the constraints on the $ρ$ parameter imposed by the LEP. We finally obtain the allowed region of the parameters in the model.
We require that the primordial baryon asymmetry is not washed out in the seesaw model compatible with the recent results of WMAP and the neutrino oscillation experiments including the first results of KamLAND. We find that only the case of the normal neutrino mass hierarchy with an approximate $L_{e}$-symmetry satisfies the requirement. We further derive, depending on the signs of neutrino mass eigenvalues, three types of neutrino mass matrixes, where the values of each element are rather precisely fixed.
We report on the status of primordial nucleosynthesis in light of recent results on CMB anisotropies from WMAP experiment. Theoretical estimates for nuclei abundances, along with the corresponding uncertainties, are evaluated using a new numerical code, where all nuclear rates usually considered have been updated using the most recent available data. Moreover, additional processes, neglected in previous calculations, have been included. The combined analysis of CMB and primordial nucleosynthesis prediction for Deuterium gives an effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom in good agree…
We consider a recently proposed scenario for the generation of primordial cosmological perturbations, the so called Cosmological Slingshot scenario. We firstly obtain a general expression for the Slingshot primordial power spectrum which extends previous results by including a blue pre-bounce residual contribution at large scales. Starting from this expression we numerically compute the CMB temperature and polarization power spectra arising from the Slingshot scenario and show that they excellently match the standard WMAP 3-years best-fit results. In particular, if the residual blue spectrum i…
Big bang nucleosynthesis has long provided the primary determination of the cosmic baryon density $\omb h^2$, or equivalently the baryon-to-photon ratio, η. Recently, data on CMB anisotropies have become increasingly sensitive to η. The comparison of these two independent measures provides a key test for big bang cosmology. The first release of results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) marks a milestone in this test. With the precision of WMAP, the CMB now offers a significantly stronger constraint on η. We discuss the current state of BBN theory and light element observatio…
Reconstructing the shape of the primordial power spectrum in a model independent way from cosmological data is a useful consistency check on what is usually assumed regarding early universe physics. It is also our primary window to unknown physics during the inflationary era. Using a power-law form for the primordial power spectrum $P_{in}(k)$ and constraining the scalar spectral index and its running, \cite{Peiris03} found that the first year WMAP data seem to indicate a preferred scale in $P_{in}(k)$. We use two complementary methods: the wavelet band powers method of \cite{pia1}, and the to…
The vacuum inflation with a boundary condition specified at a short-distance scale in a generally primeval non-flat Universe, and implications of the correspondingly modified primordial power spectrum via the WMAP data are investigated. We obtain a general form of the modified primordial power spectrum including the effects of both possibly new physics scale and the spatial curvature. The modulation of the primordial power spectrum due to new physics is of the order $H/Λ$, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter during inflation and $Λ$ is the new physics scale that is key to inflation, while the mo…
A primordial magnetic field in the early universe will cause Faraday rotation of the linear polarization of the cosmic microwave background generated via Compton scattering at the surface of last scattering. This rotation induces a non-zero parity-odd (B-mode) polarization component. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 5-year data puts an upper limit on the magnitude of the B-polarization power spectrum; assuming that the B-polarization signal is totally due to the Faraday rotation effect, the upper limits on the comoving amplitude of a primordial stochastic magnetic field range fr…
Alfven turbulence caused by statistically isotropic and homogeneous primordial magnetic field induces correlations in the cosmic microwave background anisotropies. The correlations are specifically between spherical harmonic modes a_{l-1,m} and a_{l+1,m}. In this paper we approach this issue from phase analysis of the CMB maps derived from the WMAP data sets. Using circular statistics and return phase mapping we examine phase correlation of Δl=2 for the primordial non-Gaussianity caused by the Alfven turbulence at the epoch of recombination. Our analyses show that such specific features from t…
In this paper we implement an improved (error sensitive) Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm on the measured angular power spectrum from the WMAP 3 year data to determine the primordial power spectrum assuming different points in the cosmological parameter space for a flat LCDM cosmological model. We also present the preliminary results of the cosmological parameter estimation by assuming a free form of the primordial spectrum, for a reasonably large volume of the parameter space. The recovered spectrum for a considerably large number of the points in the cosmological parameter space has a…
We probe the scale dependence of the primordial spectrum in the light of the three-year WMAP (WMAP3) alone and WMAP3 in combination with the other cosmological observations such as galaxy clustering and Type Ia Supernova (SNIa). We pay particular attention to the combination with the Lyman $α$ (Ly$α$) forest. Different from the first-year WMAP (WMAP1), WMAP3's preference on the running of the scalar spectral index on the large scales is now fairly independent of the low CMB multipoles $\ell$. A combination with the galaxy power spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) prefers a negati…
We present an analysis of the Minkowski Functionals (MFs) describing the WMAP three-year temperature maps to place limits on possible levels of primordial non-Gaussianity. In particular, we apply perturbative formulae for the MFs to give constraints on the usual non-linear coupling constant fNL. The theoretical predictions are found to agree with the MFs of simulated CMB maps including the full effects of radiative transfer. The agreement is also very good even when the simulation maps include various observational artifacts, including the pixel window function, beam smearing, inhomogeneous no…
Precise measurements of the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background enable us to do an accurate study on the form of the primordial power spectrum for a given set of cosmological parameters. In a previous paper (Shafieloo and Souradeep 2004), we implemented an improved (error sensitive) Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm on the measured angular power spectrum from the first year of WMAP data to determine the primordial power spectrum assuming a concordance cosmological model. This recovered spectrum has a likelihood far better than a scale invariant, or, `best fit' scale free spec…
We reconstruct the primordial spectrum of the curvature perturbation, $P(k)$, from the observational data of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) by the cosmic inversion method developed recently. In contrast to conventional parameter-fitting methods, our method can potentially reproduce small features in $P(k)$ with good accuracy. As a result, we obtain a complicated oscillatory $P(k)$. We confirm that this reconstructed $P(k)$ recovers the WMAP angular power spectrum with resolution up to $Δ\ell \simeq 5$. Similar oscillatory features are found, however, in simulations using artif…
We look for a non-Gaussian signal in the WMAP 5-year temperature anisotropy maps by performing a needlet-based data analysis. We use the foreground-reduced maps obtained by the WMAP team through the optimal combination of the W, V and Q channels, and perform realistic non-Gaussian simulations in order to constrain the non-linear coupling parameter $\fnl$. We apply a third-order estimator of the needlet coefficients skewness and compute the $χ^2$ statistics of its distribution. We obtain $-80<\fnl<120$ at 95% confidence level, which is consistent with a Gaussian distribution and comparable to p…
The observational constraints on the primordial power spectrum have tightened considerably with the release of the first year analysis of the WMAP observations, especially when combined with the results from other CMB experiments and galaxy redshift surveys. These observations allow us to constrain the physics of cosmological inflation: (i) The data show that the Hubble distance is almost constant during inflation. While observable modes cross the Hubble scale, it changes by less than 3% during one e-folding: d(d_H)/dt < 0.032 at 2 sigma. The distance scale of inflation itself remains poorly c…
We measure the 2-1 cumulant correlator power spectrum $C^{21}_l$, a degenerate bispectrum, from the second data release of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Our high resolution measurements with SpICE span a large configuration space ($\simeq 168\times999$) corresponding to the possible cross-correlations of the maps recorded by the different differencing assemblies. We present a novel method to recover the eigenmodes of the correspondingly large Monte Carlo covariance matrix. We examine its eigenvalue spectrum and use random matrix theory to show that the off diagonal terms are…
The observed angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy, $C_l$, is a convolution of a cosmological radiative transport kernel with an assumed primordial power spectrum of inhomogeneities. Exquisite measurements of $C_l$ over a wide range of multipoles from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has opened up the possibility to deconvolve the primordial power spectrum for a given set of cosmological parameters (base model). We implement an improved (error sensitive) Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm on the measured angular power spectrum from…
We present evidence for the detection of primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type (fNL), using the temperature information of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the WMAP 3-year data. We employ the bispectrum estimator of non-Gaussianity described in (Yadav et al. 2007) which allows us to analyze the entirety of the WMAP data without an arbitrary cut-off in angular scale. Using the combined information from WMAP's two main science channels up to lmax=750 and the conservative Kp0 foreground mask we find 27 < fNL < 147 at 95% C.L., with a central value of fNL=87. This corresponds to a…
A primordial cosmological magnetic field induces and supports vorticity or Alfven waves, which in turn generate cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. A homogeneous primordial magnetic field with fixed direction induces correlations between the $a_{l-1,m}$ and $a_{l+1,m}$ multipole coefficients of the CMB temperature anisotropy field. We discuss the constraints that can be placed on the strength of such a primordial magnetic field using CMB anisotropy data from the WMAP experiment. We place 3 $σ$ upper limits on the strength of the magnetic field of $B < 15$ nG for vector perturbation…
We elaborate further on the possibility that the inflationary primordial power spectrum contains superimposed oscillations. We study various effects which could influence the calculation of the multipole moments in this case. We also present the theoretical predictions for two other cosmological observables, the matter power spectrum and the EE polarization channel.
Several accurate analyses of the CMB temperature maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) have revealed a set of anomalous results, at large angular scales, that appears inconsistent with the statistical isotropy expected in the concordance cosmological model $Λ$CDM. Because these anomalies seem to indicate a preferred direction in the space, here we investigate the signatures that a primordial magnetic field, possibly present in the photon-baryon fluid during the decoupling era, could have produced in the large-angle modes of the observed CMB temperature fluctuations maps. To…
We introduce a new method for applying an inflationary prior to a cosmological dataset that includes relations between observables at arbitrary order in the slow roll expansion. The process is based on the inflationary flow equations, and the slow roll parameters appear explicitly in the cosmological parameter set. We contrast our method to other ways of imposing an inflationary prior on a cosmological dataset, and argue that this method is ideal for use with heterogeneous datasets. In particular, it would be well suited to exploiting any direct detection of fundamental tensor modes by a BBO-s…
The recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements indicate that there is power deficiency of the CMB anisotropies at large scales compared with the $Λ$CDM model. We have investigated the possibility of explaining such effects by a class of primordial power spectra which have infrared cutoffs close to the horizon scale. The primordial power spectrum recovered by direct deconvolution of the observed CMB angular spectrum indicates that the data prefers a sharp infrared cutoff with a localized excess (bump) just above the cutoff. We have been motivated to assess plausible extensions of sim…
The combined analysis of the cosmic microwave background on large scales and Lyman-alpha forest on small scales provides a sufficiently long lever arm to obtain strong constraints on the slope and curvature of the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations. We present results from the combination of the first year WMAP data and the dark matter power spectrum inferred by Viel et al. (2004) for two different sets of high resolution and high signal-to-noise quasar absorption spectra: the Croft et al. (2002) sample with a median redshift z=2.72 and the LUQAS sample (Kim et al. 2004) with a …
We develop a new approach toward a high resolution non-parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum using WMAP cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies that we confront with SDSS large-scale structure data in the range k~0.01-0.1 h/Mpc. We utilise the standard LambdaCDM cosmological model but we allow the baryon fraction to vary. In particular, for the concordance baryon fraction, we compare indications of a possible feature at k~0.05 h/Mpc in WMAP data with suggestions of similar features in large scale structure surveys.
We extend to large scales a method proposed in previous work that reconstructs non-parametrically the primordial power spectrum from cosmic microwave background data at high resolution. The improvement is necessary to account for the non-gaussianity of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) likelihood due primarily to cosmic variance. We assume the concordance LambdaCDM cosmology, utilise a smoothing prior and perform Monte Carlo simulations around an initial power spectrum that is scale-free and with spectral index n_s=0.97, very close to the concordance spectrum. The horizon scale f…
We constrain the form of the primordial power spectrum using Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-year cosmic microwave background (CMB) data (+ other high resolution CMB experiments) in addition to complementary large-scale structure (LSS) data: 2dF, SDSS, Ly-alpha forest and luminous red galaxy (LRG) data from the SDSS catalogue. We compute the comparative Bayesian evidence in addition to parameter estimates for a collection of seven models: (i) a scale invariant Harrison-Zel'dovich (H-Z) spectrum; (ii) a power-law; (iii) a running spectral index; (iv) a broken spectrum; (v) a power…
In this paper, we revisit brane inflation models with the WMAP five-year results. The WMAP five-year data favor a red-tilted power spectrum of primordial fluctuations at the level of two standard deviations, which is the same as the WMAP three-year result qualitatively, but quantitatively the spectral index is slightly greater than the three-year value. This result can bring impacts on brane inflation models. According to the WMAP five-year data, we find that the KKLMMT model can survive at the level of one standard deviation, and the fine-tuning of the parameter $β$ can be alleviated to a cer…
The recent determination of the baryon-to-photon ratio from WMAP data by Spergel et al. (2003) allows one to fix with unprecedented precision the primordial abundances of the light elements D, 3He, 4He and 7Li in the framework of the standard model of big bang nucleosynthesis. We adopt these primordial abundances and discuss the implications for Galactic chemical evolution, stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis of the light elements. The model predictions on D, 3He and 4He are in excellent agreement with the available data, while a significant depletion of 7Li in low-metallicity stars is requi…
We reconsider the original model of quadratic hybrid inflation in light of the WMAP three-year results and study the possibility of obtaining a spectral index of primordial density perturbations, $n_s$, smaller than one from this model. The original hybrid inflation model naturally predicts $n_s\geq1$ in the false vacuum dominated regime but it is also possible to have $n_s<1$ when the quadratic term dominates. We therefore investigate whether there is also an intermediate regime compatible with the latest constraints, where the scalar field value during the last 50 e-folds of inflation is les…
The possibility that the cosmic variance outliers present in the recently released WMAP multipole moments are due to oscillations in the primordial power spectrum is investigated. Since the most important contribution to the WMAP likelihood originates from the outliers at relatively small angular scale (around the first Doppler peak), special attention is paid to these in contrast with previous studies on the subject which have concentrated on the large scales outliers only (i.e. the quadrupole and octupole). As a physically motivated example, the case where the oscillations are of trans-Planc…
In this addendum to Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 023502, we present an update of cosmological constraints on single-field inflation in light of the Wilkinson Microwave Ansiotropy Probe satellite mission five-year results (WMAP5). We find that the cosmic microwave background data are quite consistent with a Harrison-Zel'dovich primordial spectrum with no running and zero tensor amplitude. We find that the three main conclusions of our analysis of the WMAP three-year data (WMAP3) are consistent with the WMAP5 data: (1) the Harrison--Zel'dovich model is within the 95% confidence level contours; (2) there…
We systematically analyze the primordial non-Gaussianity estimator used by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) science team with the basic ideas of estimation theory in order to see if the limited Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data is being optimally utilized. The WMAP estimator is based on the implicit assumption that the CMB bispectrum, the harmonic transform of the three-point correlation function, contains all of the primordial non-Gaussianity information in a CMB map. We first demonstrate that the Signal-to-Noise (S/N) of an estimator based on CMB three-point correlation f…
Observations of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe suggest the possibility of oscillations in the primordial density perturbation. Such deviations from the usually assumed scale-free spectrum were predicted in the multiple inflation model wherein `flat direction' fields undergo rapid phase transitions due to the breaking of supersymmetry by the large vacuum energy driving inflation. This causes sudden changes in the mass of the (gravitationally coupled) inflaton and interrupts its slow roll. We calculate analytically the resulting modifi…
We present limits to the amplitude of non-Gaussian primordial fluctuations in the WMAP 1-year cosmic microwave background sky maps. A non-linear coupling parameter, f_NL, characterizes the amplitude of a quadratic term in the primordial potential. We use two statistics: one is a cubic statistic which measures phase correlations of temperature fluctuations after combining all configurations of the angular bispectrum. The other uses the Minkowski functionals to measure the morphology of the sky maps. Both methods find the WMAP data consistent with Gaussian primordial fluctuations and establish l…
The cosmological magnetic field is one of the important physical quantities which affect strongly the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum. Recent CMB observations have been extended to higher multipoles $l\gtrsim$1000, and they resultantly exhibit an excess power than the standard model prediction in cosmological theory which best fits the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data at lower multipoles $l\lesssim$900. We calculate the CMB temperature anisotropies generated by the power-law magnetic field at the last scattering surface (LSS) in order to remove the tension betw…
We investigate the effect of non-evaporating primordial black holes (PBHs) on the ionization and thermal history of the universe. X-rays emitted by gas accretion onto PBHs modify the cosmic recombination history, producing measurable effects on the spectrum and anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Using the third-year WMAP data and FIRAS data we improve existing upper limits on the abundance of PBHs with masses >0.1 Msun by several orders of magnitude. Fitting WMAP3 data with cosmological models that do not allow for non-standard recombination histories, as produced by PBHs o…
We study the effect of primordial isocurvature perturbations on non-Gaussian properties of CMB temperature anisotropies. We consider generic forms of the non-linearity of isocurvature perturbations which can be applied to a wide range of theoretical models. We derive analytical expressions for the bispectrum and the Minkowski Functionals for CMB temperature fluctuations to describe the non-Gaussianity from isocurvature perturbations. We find that the isocurvature non-Gaussianity in the quadratic isocurvature model, where the isocurvature perturbation S is written as a quadratic function of the…
The lithium problem arises from the significant discrepancy between the primordial 7Li abundance as predicted by BBN theory and the WMAP baryon density, and the pre-Galactic lithium abundance inferred from observations of metal-poor (Population II) stars. This problem has loomed for the past decade, with a persistent discrepancy of a factor of 2--3 in 7Li/H. Recent developments have sharpened all aspects of the Li problem. Namely: (1) BBN theory predictions have sharpened due to new nuclear data, particularly the uncertainty on 3He(alpha,gamma)7Be, has reduced to 7.4%, and with a central value…
We test the consistency of estimates of the non-linear coupling constant f_{NL} using non-Gaussian CMB maps generated by the method described in (Liguori, Matarrese and Moscardini 2003). This procedure to obtain non-Gaussian maps differs significantly from the method used in previous works on estimation of f_{NL}. Nevertheless, using spherical wavelets, we find results in very good agreement with (Mukherjee and Wang 2004), showing that the two ways of generating primordial non-Gaussian maps give equivalent results. Moreover, we introduce a new method for estimating the non-linear coupling cons…
After few minutes the Universe evolved through conditions of temperature and density which permitted the first synthesis of astrophysically interesting abundances of D, 3He, 4He and 7Li. The relic abundances are sensitive probes of the nucleon density and so are the CMB acoustic oscillations, somewhat 400000 years later, which allow a stringent cross check. The CMB high precision estimate of the baryon density by WMAP is currently used as input parameter for standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN) to interpret primordial bundances rather then being directly derived from the observations of li…
In the WMAP era of high precision cosmology an accurate determination of the matter power spectrum from lyman-alpha forest data becomes crucial. When combining the matter power spectrum derived from CMB experiments with that inferred from lyman-alpha absorption an evidence for a running spectral index and a primordial index n < 1 arises (Verde et al. 2003). In this talk, I will describe some results obtained from a sample of 27 high resolution and high signal-to-noise quasar spectra (the LUQAS sample) and I will address possible systematic errors that can affect the estimate of the flux power …
We numerically investigate density perturbations generated in the smooth hybrid new inflation model, a kind of double inflation model that is designed to reproduce the running spectral index suggested by the WMAP results. We confirm that this model provides the running spectral index within 1sigma range of the three year WMAP result. In addition, we find a sharp and strong peak on the spectrum of primordial curvature perturbation at small scales. This originates from amplification of fluctuation in the first inflaton fields due to parametric resonance, which takes place in the oscillatory phas…
A red tilted primordial power spectrum is preferred by WMAP five-year data and a large positive local-type non-Gaussianity $f_{NL}$ might be observed as well. In this short note we find that a red tilted and large non-Gaussian primordial power spectrum cannot be naturally obtained in curvaton model, because $f_{NL}$ is related to the initial condition of inflation.
In addition to density perturbations, inflationary models of the early universe generally predict a stochastic background of gravitational waves or tensor fluctuations. By making use of the inflationary flow approach for single field models and fitting the models with Monte-Carlo techniques to cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the {\it Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe} (WMAP), we discuss the expected properties of the gravitational wave background from inflation at scales corresponding to direct detection experiments with laser interferometers in space. We complement the Monte-Ca…
We discuss upcoming opportunities with cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations during the post-WMAP era. The curl-modes of CMB polarization probe inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). While a significant source of confusion is expected from cosmic shear conversion of polarization related to density perturbations, higher resolution observations of CMB anisotropies can be used for a lensing reconstruction and to separate gravitational-wave polarization signature from that of lensing. Separations based on current lensing reconstruction techniques allow the possibility to probe inflation…
We place constraints on the number of relativistic degrees of freedom and on the baryon asymmetry at the epoch of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and at recombination, using cosmic background radiation (CBR) data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), complemented by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Key Project measurement of the Hubble constant, along with the latest compilation of deuterium abundances and measurements of the primordial helium abundance. The agreement between the derived values of these key cosmological and particle physics parameters at these widely separated (…
Inflation in a five-dimensional brane world model with two boundary branes is studied. We make use of the moduli space approximation whereby the low energy theory reduces to a four-dimensional biscalar-tensor gravity plus a minimally coupled scalar field. After a detailed analysis of the inflationary solutions, we derive the evolution equations of the linear perturbations separating the adiabatic mode from two entropy modes. We then examine the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra and show that their tilt depends on the scalar-tensor coupling constant. Finally, the induced CMB anisotropi…
The first year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) set quantitative constraints on the amplitude of any primordial non-Gaussianity. We run a series of dark matter-only N-body simulations with the WMAP constraints to investigate the effect of the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity on large scale structures. The model parameters can be constrained using the observations of protoclusters associated with Ly-$α$ emitters at high redshift ($2 \leq z \leq 4$), assuming the galaxy velocity bias can be modelled properly. High redshift structure formation potentially provides a more powerful…
Generically,the classical evolution of the inflaton has a brief fast roll stage that precedes the slow roll regime. The fast roll stage leads to a purely attractive potential for the curvature and tensor perturbations (this potential is purely repulsive in slowroll). This attractive potential depresses the CMB quadrupole moment for the curvature and B-mode spectra. A single new cosmological parameter emerges: the comoving wavenumber k_1 characteristic scale of this attractive potential.k_1 happens to exit the horizon precisely at the transition from fast to slowroll.The fastroll stage dynamica…
Detailed analyses of the WMAP data indicate possible oscillatory features in the primordial curvature perturbation, which moreover appears to be suppressed beyond the present Hubble radius. Such deviations from the usual inflationary expectation of an approximately Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum are expected in the supergravity-based 'multiple inflation' model wherein phase transitions during inflation induce sudden changes in the mass of the inflaton, thus interrupting its slow-roll. In a previous paper we calculated the resulting curvature perturbation and showed how the oscillations arise. Her…
We use the cosmic microwave background angular power spectra to place upper limits on the degree to which global defects may have aided cosmic structure formation. We explore this under the inflationary paradigm, but with the addition of textures resulting from the breaking of a global O(4) symmetry during the early stages of the Universe. As a measure of their contribution, we use the fraction of the temperature power spectrum that is attributed to the defects at a multipole of 10. However, we find a parameter degeneracy enabling a fit to the first-year WMAP data to be made even with a signif…
It is often assumed that primordial perturbations are statistically isotropic, which implies, among other properties, that their power spectrum is invariant under rotations. In this article, we test this assumption by placing model-independent bounds on deviations from rotational invariance of the primordial spectrum. Using five-year WMAP cosmic microwave anisotropy maps, we set limits on the overall norm and the amplitude of individual components of the primordial spectrum quadrupole. We find that there is no significant evidence for primordial isotropy breaking, and that an eventually non-va…
We implement and investigate a method for measuring departures from scale-invariance, both scale-dependent as well as scale-free, in the primordial power spectrum of density perturbations using cosmic microwave background (CMB) C_l data and a principal component analysis technique. The primordial power spectrum is decomposed into a dominant scale-invariant Gaussian adiabatic component plus a series of orthonormal modes whose detailed form only depends the noise model for a particular CMB experiment. However, in general these modes are localised across wavenumbers with 0.01 < k < 0.2 Mpc^-1, di…
This research demonstrates that parity violation in general relativity can simultaneously explain the observed loss in power and alignment at a preferred axis ('Axis of Evil')in the low multipole moments of the WMAP data. This observational possibility also provides an experimental window for an inflationary leptogenesis mechanism arising from large-scale parity violation. A velocity dependent potential is induced from gravitational backreaction, which modifies the primordial scalar angular power spectrum of density perturbations in the CMB. This modification suppresses power of odd parity mul…
We assay how inflationary models whose properties are dominated by the dynamics of a single scalar field are constrained by cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We classify inflationary models in a plane defined by the horizon-flow parameters. Our approach differs from that of the WMAP collaboration in that we analyze only WMAP data and take the spectral shapes from slow-roll inflation rather than power-law parameterizations of the spectra. The only other information we use is the measurement of $h$ from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) K…
We confront predictions of inflationary scenarios with the WMAP data, in combination with complementary small-scale CMB measurements and large-scale structure data. The WMAP detection of a large-angle anti-correlation in the temperature--polarization cross-power spectrum is the signature of adiabatic superhorizon fluctuations at the time of decoupling. The WMAP data are described by pure adiabatic fluctuations: we place an upper limit on a correlated CDM isocurvature component. Using WMAP constraints on the shape of the scalar power spectrum and the amplitude of gravity waves, we explore the p…
