PIRSA:08120031 Conference Cosmology

DOI10.48660/08120031

Conference/School: Young Researchers Conference 2008

Erickcek, A. (2008). Inflationary Origins of the Cosmic Power Asymmetry. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/08120031

Erickcek, Adrienne. Inflationary Origins of the Cosmic Power Asymmetry. Perimeter Institute, Dec. 09, 2008, https://pirsa.org/08120031 

@misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:08120031,
  doi = {10.48660/08120031},
  url = {https://pirsa.org/08120031},
  author = {Erickcek, Adrienne},
  keywords = {Cosmology},
  language = {en},
  title = {Inflationary Origins of the Cosmic Power Asymmetry},
  publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
  year = {2008},
  month = {dec},
  note = {PIRSA:08120031 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
}

Abstract

WMAP measurements of CMB temperature anisotropies reveal a power asymmetry: the average amplitude of temperature fluctuations in one hemisphere is larger than the average amplitude in the opposite hemisphere at the 99% confidence level. This power asymmetry may be generated during inflation by a large-amplitude superhorizon perturbation that causes the mean energy density to vary across the observable Universe. Such a superhorizon perturbation would also induce large-scale temperature anisotropies in the CMB; measurements of the CMB quadrupole and octupole (but not the dipole!) therefore constrain the perturbation\'s amplitude and wavelength. I will show how a superhorizon perturbation in a multi-field inflationary theory, the curvaton model, can produce the observed power asymmetry without generating unacceptable temperature fluctuations in the CMB. I will also discuss how this mechanism for generating the power asymmetry will be tested by forthcoming CMB experiments.

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