Testing for Gaussianity Through the Three Point Temperature Correlation Function
One of the crucial aspects of density perturbations that are produced by the standard inflation scenario is that they are Gaussian where seeds produced by topological defects tend to be non-Gaussian. The three point correlation function of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave backgroun...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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1993
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.256.4362 http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/9305009v1.pdf |
| Summary: | One of the crucial aspects of density perturbations that are produced by the standard inflation scenario is that they are Gaussian where seeds produced by topological defects tend to be non-Gaussian. The three point correlation function of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) provides a sensitive test of this aspect of the primordial density field. In this paper, this function is calculated in the general context of various allowed non-Gaussian models. It is shown that by COBE and the forthcoming South Pole and Balloon CBR anisotropy data may be able to test provide a crucial test of Gaussianity. PACS number: 98.80.Bp, 98.80.DrTesting for the Gaussianity of the primordial fluctuation spectrum is of critical importance to many cosmological models. In particular, traditional cosmic inflation [1] specifically predicts a Gaussian density fluctuation spectrum. The scale invariant quantum fluctuations generated during the inflationary epoch are expected to serve as the primordial density perturbations |
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