We investigate the statistical anisotropy and gaussianity of temperature fluctuations of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe survey, using the Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, Rescaled Range, and Scaled Windowed Variance methods. Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis shows that CMB fluctuations has a long-range correla...

We consider the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced by a network of cosmic strings and assess their accessibility to current and planned gravitational wave detectors, as well as to big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), cosmic microwave background (CMB), and pulsar timing constraints. We find that current data from interferometric gravitational wave detectors, such as Laser Interfero...

The lensing of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons by intervening large-scale structure leaves a characteristic imprint on its arcminute-scale anisotropy that can be used to map the dark matter distribution in projection on degree scales or ∼100 h 1 Mpc comoving. We introduce a new algorithm for mass reconstruction that optimally utilizes information from the weak lensing of CMB anisotrop...

These lecture notes form a primer on the theory of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy formation. With emphasis on conceptual aspects rather than technical issues, we examine the physical foundations of anisotropy evolution in relativistic kinetic and perturbation theory as well as the manifestation of these principles in primary and secondary anisotropies. We discuss gauge choice and ...

The published uncertainties of estimates of cosmic microwave background (CMB) heterogeneity based on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) differential microwave radiometer (DMR) experiment are much too small: they neglect a systematic modelling error that can exceed the estimates. The same systematic modelling error pervades images of the topography of Earth's core-mantle boundary (also called...

Context. The so-called shift parameter is related to the position of the first acoustic peak in the power spectrum of the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. It is an often used quantity in simple tests of dark energy models. However, the shift parameter is not directly measurable from the cosmic microwave background, and its value is usually derived ...

We study the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in cold and mixed dark matter (CDM and MDM) models, with non scale-invariant primordial power spectra (i.e. n 6= 1) and a late, sudden reionization of the intergalactic medium at redshift zrh. We test these models against recent detections of CMB anisotropy at large and intermediate angular scales. We find that current CMB anisotr...

Scaling properties of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation are studied using satellite (COBE-DMR maps), balloonborne and ground-based (combined QMASK map) data. Quantitative consistency is found between the multiscaling properties of the COBE-DMR and QMASK CMB maps. Surprisingly, it is found that the observed CMB temperature multiscaling resembles quantitatively the multiscaling prop...

The COBE satellite has discovered anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) consistent with a scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations1). As reviewed in this lecture, topological defect models of structure formation generically produce such a spectrum. We give a summary of the cosmic string and global texture models, focusing on distinct observational signatures in large-sc...

B-Pol is a medium-class space mission aimed at detecting the primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation through high accuracy measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. We discuss the scientific background, feasibility of the experiment, and implementation developed in response to the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call for Proposals.