The defect variance of random spherical harmonics

Abstract

The defect of a function is defined as the difference between the measure of the positive and negative regions. In this paper, we begin the analysis of the distribution of defect of random Gaussian spherical harmonics. By an easy argument, the defect is non-trivial only for even degree and the expected value always vanishes. Our principal result is evaluating the defect variance, asymptotically in the high-frequency limit. As other geometric functionals of random eigenfunctions, the defect may be used as a tool to probe the statistical properties of spherical random fields, a topic of great interest for modern cosmological data analysis.