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Title: Pearson's random walk in the space of the CMB phases: Evidence for parity asymmetry

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Niels Bohr Institute and DISCOVERY center, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, O (Denmark)
  2. University of Ferrara, Physics Department, v. Saragat 1, I-44100 Ferrara (Italy)

The temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are supposed to be distributed randomly in both magnitude and phase, following to the simplest model of inflation. In this paper, we look at the odd and even multipoles of the spherical harmonic decomposition of the CMB, and the different characteristics of these, giving rise to a parity asymmetry. We compare the even and odd multipoles in the CMB power spectrum, and also the even and odd mean angles. We find for the multipoles of the power spectrum that there is power excess in odd multipoles, compared to even ones, meaning that we have a parity asymmetry. Further, for the phases, we present a random walk for the mean angles, and find a significant separation for even/odd mean angles, especially so for galactic coordinates. This is further tested and confirmed with a directional parity test, comparing the parity asymmetry in galactic and ecliptic coordinates.

OSTI ID:
21502551
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.103508; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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