Circles in the sky: finding topology with the microwave background radiation

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/15/9/013zbMATH Open0946.83073arXivastro-ph/9801212OpenAlexW2051198951WikidataQ63354589 ScholiaQ63354589MaRDI QIDQ4699745FDOQ4699745

Authors: Neil J. Cornish, David N. Spergel, Glenn D. Starkman 

Publication date: 18 November 1999

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: If the universe is finite and smaller than the distance to the surface of last scatter, then the signature of the topology of the universe is writ large on the microwave background sky. We show that the microwave background will be identified at the intersections of the surface of last scattering as seen by different ``copies of the observer. Since the surface of last scattering is a two-sphere, these intersections will be circles, regardless of the background geometry or topology. We therefore propose a statistic that is sensitive to all small, locally homogeneous topologies. Here, small means that the distance to the surface of last scatter is smaller than the ``topology scale of the universe.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9801212

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zbMATH Keywords

cosmic microwave background radiation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General geometric structures on low-dimensional manifolds (57M50) Special relativity (83A05) Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Astrophysical cosmology (85A40)

Cited In (33)

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• Erratum to: ``Cosmic topology. I: Limits on orientable Euclidean manifolds from circle searches
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• Universe creation on a computer
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Uses Software

• SnapPea

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