Cosmic Microwave Background Anomalies Research Articles

Finding origins of CMB anomalies in the inflationary quantum fluctuations

In this paper, we present compelling evidence for the parity asymmetry (a discrete symmetry separate from isotropy) in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map, measured through two-point temperature correlations. Any asymmetry associated with discrete symmetries, such as parity, challenges our understanding of quantum physics associated with primordial physics rather than LCDM (Λ Cold-Dark-Matter) itself. We commence by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the Planck CMB, focusing on the distribution of power in low-multipoles and temperature anticorrelations at parity conjugate points in position space. We find tension with the near scale-invariant power-law power spectrum of Standard Inflation (SI), with p-values of the order 𝒪(10-4 - 10-3). Alternatively, we explore the framework of direct-sum inflation (DSI), where a quantum fluctuation arises as a direct sum of two components evolving forward and backward in time at parity conjugate points in physical space. This mechanism results in a parity-asymmetric scale-dependent power spectrum, particularly prominent at low-multipoles, without any additional free model parameters. Our findings indicate that DSI is consistent with data on parity asymmetry, the absence of power at θ > 60°, and power suppression at low-even-multipoles which are major data anomalies in the SI model. Furthermore, we discover that the parameters characterizing the hemispherical power asymmetry anomaly become statistically insignificant when the large SI quadrupole amplitude is reduced to align with the data. DSI explains this low quadrupole with a p-value of 3.5%, 39 times higher than SI. Combining statistics from parameters measuring parity and low-ℓ angular power spectrum, we find that DSI is 50-650 times more probable than SI. In summary, our investigation suggests that while CMB temperature fluctuations exhibit homogeneity and isotropy, they also display parity-asymmetric behavior consistent with predictions of DSI. This observation provides a tantalizing evidence for the quantum mechanical nature of gravity.

A possible common explanation for several cosmic microwave background (CMB) anomalies: A strong impact of nearby galaxies on observed large-scale CMB fluctuations

Context. A new and hitherto unknown cosmic microwave background (CMB) foreground has recently been detected. A systematic decrease in CMB temperatures around nearby large spiral galaxies points to an unknown interaction with CMB photons in a sphere up to several projected megaparsecs around these galaxies. Aims. We investigate to what extent this foreground may impact the CMB fluctuation map and create the so-called CMB anomalies. Methods. Using the observed temperature decrements around the galaxies, and making some general assumptions about the unknown interaction, we propose a common radial temperature profile. By assigning this profile to nearby galaxies in the redshift range z = [0.004, 0.02], we created a foreground map model. Results. We find a remarkable resemblance between this temperature model map, based on nearby galaxies, and the Planck CMB map. Compared to 1000 simulated maps, we find that none of them show such a strong correlation with the foreground map over both large and small angular scales. In particular, the quadrupole, octopole, and ℓ = 4 and ℓ = 5 modes correlate with the foreground map to a high significance. Furthermore, one of the most prominent temperature decrements in the foreground map coincides with the position of the CMB cold spot. Conclusions. The largest scales of the CMB, and thereby the cosmological parameters, may change significantly after this foreground component is properly corrected. However, a reliable corrected CMB map can only be derived when suitable physical mechanisms are proposed and tested.

Testing Cosmic Microwave Background Anomalies in E-mode Polarization with Current and Future Data

In this paper, we explore the power of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization (E-mode) data to corroborate four potential anomalies in CMB temperature data: the lack of large angular-scale correlations, the alignment of the quadrupole and octupole (Q–O), the point-parity asymmetry, and the hemispherical power asymmetry. We use CMB simulations with noise representative of three experiments—the Planck satellite, the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), and the LiteBIRD satellite—to test how current and future data constrain the anomalies. We find the correlation coefficients ρ between temperature and E-mode estimators to be less than 0.1, except for the point-parity asymmetry (ρ = 0.17 for cosmic-variance-limited simulations), confirming that E-modes provide a check on the anomalies that is largely independent of temperature data. Compared to Planck component-separated CMB data (smica), the putative LiteBIRD survey would reduce errors on E-mode anomaly estimators by factors of ∼3 for hemispherical power asymmetry and point-parity asymmetry, and by ∼26 for lack of large-scale correlation. The improvement in Q–O alignment is not obvious due to large cosmic variance, but we found the ability to pin down the estimator value will be improved by a factor ≳100. Improvements with CLASS are intermediate to these.

Anomalies in the Cosmic Microwave Background and Their Non-Gaussian Origin in Loop Quantum Cosmology

Anomalies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) refer to features that have been observed, mostly at large angular scales, and which show some tension with the statistical predictions of the standard ΛCDM model. In this work, we focus our attention on power suppression, dipolar modulation, a preference for odd parity, and the tension in the lensing parameterAL. Though the statistical significance of each individual anomaly is inconclusive, collectively they are significant, and could indicate new physics beyond the ΛCDM model. In this article, we present a brief, but pedagogical introduction to CMB anomalies and propose a common origin in the context of loop quantum cosmology.

Towards testing CMB anomalies using the kinetic and polarized Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effects

Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies on large angular scales have uncovered a number of anomalous features of marginal statistical significance, such as a hemispherical power asymmetry, lack of power on large angular scales, and features in the power spectrum. Because the primary CMB temperature has been measured at the cosmic variance limit, determining if these anomalies are hints of new physics as opposed to foregrounds, systematics, or simply statistical flukes, requires new observables. In this paper, we highlight the potential contribution that future measurements of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (kSZ) and the polarized Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect (pSZ) could make in determining the physical nature of several CMB anomalies. The kSZ and pSZ effects, temperature and polarization anisotropies induced by scattering from free electrons in the reionized Universe, are the dominant blackbody contribution to the CMB on small angular scales. Using the technique of SZ tomography, measurements of kSZ and pSZ effects can be combined with galaxy surveys to reconstruct the remote CMB dipole and quadrupole fields, providing a 3-dimensional probe of large scale modes inside our Hubble volume. Building on previous work, we forecast the additional constraining power that these observables might offer for a representative set of anomaly models. We find that the remote CMB dipole and quadrupole contain a similar amount of information on anomaly models as the primary CMB polarization. The information from CMB temperature, polarization, and the remote dipole and quadrupole fields is complementary, and the full set of observables can improve constraints on anomaly models by a factor of $\sim 2-4$ using next-generation CMB experiments and galaxy surveys. This could be sufficient to definitively establish the physical origin of several CMB anomalies.

Cosmic variance mitigation in measurements of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is sensitive to the recent phase of accelerated cosmic expansion through the late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect, which manifests as secondary temperature fluctuations on large angular scales. However, the large cosmic variance from primary CMB fluctuations limits the usefulness of this effect in constraining dark energy or modified gravity. In this paper, we propose a novel method to separate the ISW signal from the primary signal using gravitational lensing, based on the fact that the ISW signal is, to a good approximation, not gravitationally lensed. We forecast how well we can isolate the ISW signal for different experimental configurations, and discuss various applications, including modified gravity, large-scale CMB anomalies, and measurements of local-type primordial non-Gaussianity. Although not within reach of current experiments, the proposed method is a unique way to remove the cosmic variance of the primary signal, allowing for better CMB-based constraints on late-time phenomena than previously thought possible.

CMB anomalies and the effects of local features of the inflaton potential

Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales k=0.002 Mpc{}^{-1} and k=0.0035 Mpc{}^{-1}, respectively. We analyze for the first time the effects of a local feature in the inflaton potential to explain the observed deviations from scale invariance in the primordial spectrum. We perform a best-fit analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation temperature and polarization data. The effects of the features can improve the agreement with observational data respect to the featureless model. The best-fit local feature affects the primordial curvature spectrum mainly in the region of the bump, leaving the spectrum unaffected on other scales.

Limits on entanglement effects in the string landscape from Planck and BICEP/Keck data

We consider observational limits on a proposed model of the string landscape in inflation. In this scenario, effects from the decoherence of entangled quantum states in long-wavelength modes in the universe result in modifications to the Friedmann Equation and a corresponding modification to inflationary dynamics. Previous work [1, 2] suggested that such effects could provide an explanation for well-known anomalies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), such as the lack of power on large scales and the ``cold spot'' seen by both the WMAP and Planck satellites. In this paper, we compute limits on these entanglement effects from the Planck CMB data combined with the BICEP/Keck polarization measurement, and find no evidence for observable modulations to the power spectrum from landscape entanglement, and no sourcing of observable CMB anomalies. The originally proposed model with an exponential potential is ruled out to high significance. Assuming a Starobinsky-type R2 inflation model, which is consistent with CMB constraints, data place a 2σ lower bound of b > 6.46 × 107 GeV on the Supersymmetry breaking scale associated with entanglement corrections.

Inflation in the closed FLRW model and the CMB

Recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations put strong constraints on the spatial curvature via estimation of the parameter Ωk assuming an almost scale invariant primordial power spectrum. We study the evolution of the background geometry and gauge-invariant scalar perturbations in an inflationary closed FLRW model and calculate the primordial power spectrum. We find that the inflationary dynamics is modified due to the presence of spatial curvature, leading to corrections to the nearly scale invariant power spectrum at the end of inflation. When evolved to the surface of last scattering, the resulting temperature anisotropy spectrum (CTTℓ) shows deficit of power at low multipoles (ℓ < 20). By comparing our results with the recent Planck data we discuss the role of spatial curvature in accounting for CMB anomalies and in the estimation of the parameter Ωk. Since the curvature effects are limited to low multipoles, the Planck estimation of cosmological parameters remains robust under inclusion of positive spatial curvature.

Differential cosmic expansion and the Hubble flow anisotropy

The Universe on scales 10–100 h−1Mpc is dominated by a cosmic web of voids, filaments, sheets and knots of galaxy clusters. These structures participate differently in the global expansion of the Universe: from non-expanding clusters to the above average expansion rate of voids. In this paper we characterize Hubble expansion anisotropies in the COMPOSITE sample of 4534 galaxies and clusters. We concentrate on the dipole and quadrupole in the rest frame of the Local Group. These both have statistically significant amplitudes. These anisotropies, and their redshift dependence, cannot be explained solely by a boost of the Local Group in the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model which expands isotropically in the rest frame of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. We simulate the local expansion of the Universe with inhomogeneous Szekeres solutions, which match the standard FLRW model on ≳ 100 h−1Mpc scales but exhibit nonkinematic relativistic differential expansion on small scales. We restrict models to be consistent with observed CMB temperature anisotropies, while simultaneously fitting the redshift variation of the Hubble expansion dipole. We include features to account for both the Local Void and the “Great Attractor”. While this naturally accounts for the Hubble expansion and CMB dipoles, the simulated quadrupoles are smaller than observed. Further refinement to incorporate additional structures may improve this. This would enable a test of the hypothesis that some large angle CMB anomalies result from failing to treat the relativistic differential expansion of the background geometry; a natural feature of solutions to Einstein's equations not included in the current standard model of cosmology.

Reconstruction of CMB temperature anisotropies with primordial CMB induced polarization in galaxy clusters

Abstract Scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in galaxy clusters induces polarization signals determined by the quadrupole anisotropy in the photon distribution at the location of clusters. This ‘remote quadrupole’ derived from the measurements of the induced polarization in galaxy clusters provides an opportunity to reconstruct local CMB temperature anisotropies. In this Letter, we develop an algorithm of the reconstruction through the estimation of the underlying primordial gravitational potential, which is the origin of the CMB temperature and polarization fluctuations and CMB induced polarization in galaxy clusters. We found a nice reconstruction for the quadrupole and octopole components of the CMB temperature anisotropies with the assistance of the CMB induced polarization signals. The reconstruction can be an important consistency test on the puzzles of CMB anomalies, especially for the low-quadrupole and axis-of-evil problems reported in Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck data.

Large scale CMB anomalies from thawing cosmic strings

Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings imprint their signature in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies after recombination. Being almost frozen in the Hubble flow, these strings are quasi static and evade almost all of the previously derived constraints on their tension while being able to source large scale anisotropies in the CMB sky. Using a local variance estimator on thousand of numerically simulated Nambu-Goto all sky maps, we compute the expected signal and show that it can mimic a dipole modulation at large angular scales while being negligible at small angles. Interestingly, such a scenario generically produces one cold spot from the thawing of a cosmic string loop. Mixed with anisotropies of inflationary origin, we find that a few strings of tension GU = \U0001d4aa(1) × 10−6 match the amplitude of the dipole modulation reported in the Planck satellite measurements and could be at the origin of other large scale anomalies.

Distortion of the cosmic microwave background by the Milky Way

The Milky Way can act as a large-scale weak gravitational lens of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We study this effect using a photon ray-tracing code and a Galactic mass distribution with disk, bulge and halo components. For an observer at the Sun's coordinates in the Galaxy, the bending of CMB photon paths is limited to less than one arcsecond, and only for rays that pass within a few degrees of the Galactic Center. However, the entire sky is affected, resulting in global distortions of the CMB on large angular scales. These distortions can cause the low-order multipoles of a spherical harmonic expansion of the CMB sky temperature to leak into higher-order modes. Thus the component of the CMB dipole that results from the Local Group's motion relative to the local cosmic frame of rest contributes to higher-order moments for an observer in the solar system. With our ray-tracing code we show that the phenomenon is not sensitive to the specific choice of Galactic potential. We also quantitatively rule it out as a contributor to CMB anomalies such as power asymmetry or correlated alignment of low-order multipole moments.

Removal of two large-scale cosmic microwave background anomalies after subtraction of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect

Though debated, the existence of claimed large-scale anomalies in the CMB is not totally dismissed. In parallel to the debate over their statistical significance, recent work focussed on masks and secondary anisotropies as potential sources of these anomalies. In this work we investigate simultaneously the impact of the method used to account for masked regions and the impact of the ISW effect, which is the large-scale secondary anisotropy most likely to affect the CMB anomalies. In this sense, our work is an update of both Francis & Peacock 2010 and Kim et al. 2012. Our aim is to identify trends in CMB data with different mask treatments. We reconstruct the ISW signal due to 2MASS and NVSS galaxies. We account for missing data using the sparse inpainting technique of Abrial et al. 2008 and sparse inpainting of the CMB, LSS and ISW and find that it constitutes a bias-free reconstruction method suitable to study large-scale statistical isotropy and the ISW effect. We focus on three large-scale CMB anomalies: the low quadrupole, the quad/oct alignment, and the octopole planarity. After sparse inpainting, the low quadrupole becomes more anomalous, whilst the quad/oct alignment becomes less anomalous. The significance of the low quadrupole is unchanged after subtraction of the ISW effect, while the trend is that the quad/oct alignment has reduced significance, yet other hypotheses remain possible as well (e.g. exotic physics). Our results also suggest that both of these anomalies may be due to the quadrupole alone. The octopole planarity significance is also reduced after inpainting and after ISW subtraction, however, we do not find that it was very anomalous to start with. In the spirit of reproducible research, we make all codes and resulting products which constitute main results of this paper public here: http://www.cosmostat.org/anomaliesCMB.html.

Application of the Non-Local Physics in the Theory of Gravitational Waves and Big Bang

The theory of gravitational waves in the frame of non-local quantum hydrodynamics (NLQH) is considered. From calculations follow that NLQH equations for “empty” space have the traveling wave solutions belonging in particular to the soliton class. The possible influence and reaction of the background microwave radiation is taken into account. These results lead to the principal correction of the inflation theory and serve as the explanation for the recent discovery of the universe’s cosmic microwave background anomalies. The simple analytical particular cases and numerical calculations are delivered. Proposal for astronomers—to find in the center domain of the hefty cold spot the smallest hot spot as the origin of the initial burst—Big Bang.

Resonant signatures of heavy scalar fields in the cosmic microwave background

We investigate the possibility that a heavy scalar field, whose mass exceeds the Hubble scale during inflation, could leave non-negligible signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy power spectrum through the parametric resonance between its background oscillations and the inflaton fluctuations. By assuming the heavy scalar field couples with the inflaton derivatively, we show that the resonance can be efficient without spoiling the slow-roll inflation. The primordial power spectrum modulated by the resonance has a sharp peak at a specific scale and could be an origin of the anomalies observed in the angular power spectrum of the CMB. In some values of parameters, the modulated spectrum can fit the observed data better than the simple power-law power spectrum, though the resultant improvement of the fit is not large enough and hence other observations such as non-Gaussianity are necessary to confirm that the CMB anomalies are originated from the resonant effect of the heavy scalar field. The resonant signatures can provide an opportunity to observe heavy degrees of freedom during inflation and improve our understanding of physics behind inflation.

An estimate of the local integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal and its impact on cosmic microwave background anomalies

We estimate the local density field in redshift shells to a maximum redshift of z=0.3, using photometric redshifts for the 2MASS galaxy catalogue, matched to optical data from the SuperCOSMOS galaxy catalogue. This density-field map is used to predict the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) CMB anisotropies that originate within the volume at z<0.3. We investigate the impact of this estimated ISW foreground signal on large-scale anomalies in the WMAP CMB data. We find that removal of the foreground ISW signal from WMAP data reduces the significance of a number of reported large-scale anomalies in the CMB, including the low quadrupole power and the apparent alignment between the CMB quadrupole and octopole.

Is the cold spot responsible for the CMB North-South asymmetry?

Several intriguing phenomena, unlikely within the standard inflationary cosmology, were reported in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and appear to be uncorrelated. Two of these phenomena, termed CMB anomalies, are representative of their disparate nature: the North-South asymmetry in the CMB angular-correlation strength, inconsistent with an isotropic universe, and the cold spot, producing a significant deviation from Gaussianity. We find a correlation between them, at medium angular scales ($\ensuremath{\ell}=11--20$): we show that a successive diminution of the cold spot (absolute value) temperature implies a monotonic decrease of the North-South asymmetry power, and moreover we find that the cold spot supplies 60% of such power.

Cosmic microwave background anomalies viewed via Gumbel statistics

We describe and discuss the application of Gumbel statistics, which model extreme events, to WMAP 5-year measurements of the cosmic microwave background. We find that temperature extrema of the CMB are well modelled by the Gumbel formalism and describe tests for Gaussianity that the approach can provide. Comparison to simulations reveals Gumbel statistics to have only weak discriminatory power for the conventional statistic: $f_{NL}<1000$, though it may probe other regimes of non-Gaussianity. Tests based on hemispheric cuts reveal interesting alignment with other reported CMB anomalies. The approach has the advantage of model independence and may find further utility with smaller scale data.

Instability of Anisotropic Cosmological Solutions Supported by Vector Fields

Models with vector fields acquiring a nonvanishing vacuum expectation value along one spatial direction have been proposed to sustain a prolonged stage of anisotropic accelerated expansion. Such models have been used for realizations of early time inflation, with a possible relation to the large scale cosmic microwave background anomalies, or of the late time dark energy. We show that, quite generally, the concrete realizations proposed so far are plagued by instabilities (either ghosts or unstable growth of the linearized perturbations) which can be ultimately related to the longitudinal vector polarization present in them. Phenomenological results based on these models are therefore unreliable.