Cosmic Microwave Background

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "Cosmology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 6780

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-sen University, 2 Daxue Rd., Tangjia, Zhuhai 519082, China
Interests: cosmic microwave background; dark energy; inflation

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Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, and Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA/CAUP), Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
Interests: cosmology; structure formation; cosmic defects; dark energy; dark matter; varying fundamental couplings; modified gravity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past three decades, measurements of temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have played a key role in the development of precision cosmology and our understanding of the early universe. The B-mode polarization of CMB is considered to be the unique probe of primordial gravitational waves on cosmological scales, the “smoking gun” of the inflationary paradigm. CMB secondary anisotropies correlated with the late-universe large scale structures are potentially a very powerful probe that helps to reveal the nature of the dark components of the universe. CMB spectral distortion contains information about energy injection in the early universe, which places bounds on the primordial abundance of supermassive black holes and other energy sources.

This Special Issue will collect contributions on the challenges, cutting-edge progresses, and future prospects of CMB science. The aim is to invite scientists all over the world to discuss and share their new ideas on how to utilize CMB to explore the physical cosmos. All original contributions are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Zhiqi Huang
Prof. Dr. Pedro Pina Avelino
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • cosmic microwave background
  • primordial gravitational wave
  • early universe
  • inflation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 862 KiB  
Article
Discord in Concordance Cosmology and Anomalously Massive Early Galaxies
by Stacy S. McGaugh
Universe 2024, 10(1), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe10010048 - 19 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1192
Abstract
Cosmological parameters are constrained by a wide variety of observations. We examine the concordance diagram for modern measurements of the Hubble constant, the shape parameter from the large-scale structure, the cluster baryon fraction, and the age of the universe, all from non-CMB data. [...] Read more.
Cosmological parameters are constrained by a wide variety of observations. We examine the concordance diagram for modern measurements of the Hubble constant, the shape parameter from the large-scale structure, the cluster baryon fraction, and the age of the universe, all from non-CMB data. There is good agreement for H0=73.24±0.38kms1Mpc1 and Ωm=0.237±0.015. This concordance value is indistinguishable from the WMAP3 cosmology but is not consistent with that of Planck: there is a tension in Ωm as well as H0. These tensions have emerged as progressively higher multipoles have been incorporated into CMB fits. This temporal evolution is suggestive of a systematic effect in the analysis of CMB data at fine angular scales and may be related to the observation of unexpectedly massive galaxies at high redshift. These are overabundant relative to ΛCDM predictions by an order of magnitude at z>7. Such massive objects are anomalous and could cause gravitational lensing of the surface of last scattering in excess of the standard calculation made in CMB fits, potentially skewing the best-fit cosmological parameters and contributing to the Hubble tension. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cosmic Microwave Background)
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14 pages, 705 KiB  
Article
CMB Power Spectrum in the Emergent Universe with K-Essence
by Qihong Huang, Kaituo Zhang, He Huang, Bing Xu and Feiquan Tu
Universe 2023, 9(5), 221; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe9050221 - 06 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 840
Abstract
The emergent universe provides a possible method to avoid the Big Bang singularity by considering that the universe stems from a stable Einstein static universe rather than the singularity. Since the Einstein static universe exists before inflation, it may leave some relics in [...] Read more.
The emergent universe provides a possible method to avoid the Big Bang singularity by considering that the universe stems from a stable Einstein static universe rather than the singularity. Since the Einstein static universe exists before inflation, it may leave some relics in the CMB power spectrum. In this paper, we analyze the stability condition for the Einstein static universe in general relativity with k-essence against both the scalar and tensor perturbations. Furthermore, we find the emergent universe can be successfully realized by constructing a scalar potential and an equation of state parameter. Solving the curved Mukhanov–Sasaki equation, we obtain the analytical approximation for the primordial power spectrum, and then depict the TT-spectrum of the emergent universe. The results show that both the primordial power spectrum and CMB TT-spectrum are suppressed on large scales. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cosmic Microwave Background)
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9 pages, 399 KiB  
Article
The Galactic Interstellar Medium Has a Preferred Handedness of Magnetic Misalignment
by Zhiqi Huang
Universe 2022, 8(8), 423; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8080423 - 17 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1533
Abstract
The Planck mission detected a positive correlation between the intensity (T) and B-mode polarization of the Galactic thermal dust emission. The TB correlation is a parity-odd signal, whose statistical mean vanishes in models with mirror symmetry. Recent work has [...] Read more.
The Planck mission detected a positive correlation between the intensity (T) and B-mode polarization of the Galactic thermal dust emission. The TB correlation is a parity-odd signal, whose statistical mean vanishes in models with mirror symmetry. Recent work has shown, with strong evidence, that local handedness of the misalignment between the dust filaments and the sky-projected magnetic field produces TB signals. However, it remains unclear whether the observed global TB signal is caused by statistical fluctuations of magnetic misalignment angles or whether some parity-violating physics in the interstellar medium sets a preferred misalignment handedness. The present work aims to make a quantitative statement about how confidently the statistical fluctuation interpretation is ruled out by filament-based simulations of polarized dust emission. We use the publicly available DUSTFILAMENTS code to simulate the dust emission from filaments whose magnetic misalignment angles are symmetrically randomized and construct the probability density function of ξp, a weighted sum of the TB power spectrum. We find that the Planck data have a ≳10σ tension with the simulated ξp distribution. Our results strongly support the idea that the Galactic filament misalignment has a preferred handedness, whose physical origin is yet to be identified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cosmic Microwave Background)
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13 pages, 543 KiB  
Article
Stringy Signals from Large-Angle Correlations in the Cosmic Microwave Background?
by Miguel-Angel Sanchis-Lozano
Universe 2022, 8(8), 396; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8080396 - 28 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1003
Abstract
We interpret the lack of large-angle temperature correlations and the even-odd parity imbalance observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by COBE, WMAP and Planck satellite missions as a possible stringy signal ultimately stemming from a composite inflaton field (e.g., a fermionic condensate). [...] Read more.
We interpret the lack of large-angle temperature correlations and the even-odd parity imbalance observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by COBE, WMAP and Planck satellite missions as a possible stringy signal ultimately stemming from a composite inflaton field (e.g., a fermionic condensate). Based on causality arguments and a Fourier analysis of the angular two-point correlation function, two infrared cutoffs kmineven,odd (satisfying kmineven2kminodd) are introduced to the CMB power spectrum associated, respectively, with periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions of the fermionic constituents (echoing the Neveu–Schwarz–Ramond model in superstring theory), without resorting to any particular model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cosmic Microwave Background)
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8 pages, 2353 KiB  
Article
Measuring the Modified Gravitational Wave Propagation beyond General Relativity from CMB Observations
by Jun Li
Universe 2022, 8(7), 367; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe8070367 - 03 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1224
Abstract
In modified gravity theories, gravitational wave propagations are presented in nonstandard ways. We consider a friction term different from GR and constrain the modified gravitational waves propagation from observations. The modified gravitational waves produce anisotropies and polarization, which generate measurable tensor power spectra. [...] Read more.
In modified gravity theories, gravitational wave propagations are presented in nonstandard ways. We consider a friction term different from GR and constrain the modified gravitational waves propagation from observations. The modified gravitational waves produce anisotropies and polarization, which generate measurable tensor power spectra. We explore the impact of the friction term on the power spectrum of B-modes and the impact on the constraints on the other parameters (e.g., r or At) when ν0 is allowed to vary in the Monte Carlo analyses from Planck+BK18 datasets. If we assume the result of the scalar perturbations is unchanged, the inflation consistency relation alters with the friction term. In the ΛCDM+r+ν0 model, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the amplitude of the tensor spectrum are obviously influenced. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cosmic Microwave Background)
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