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Genus Topology of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the WMAP 3-Year Data

J. Richard Gott III·Wesley N. Colley·Chan-Gyung Park·Changbom Park·Charles Mugnolo
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Abstract

We have independently measured the genus topology of the temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background seen in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-year data. A genus analysis of the WMAP data indicates consistency with Gaussian random-phase initial conditions, as predicted by standard inflation. We set 95% confidence limits on non-linearities of -101 < f_{nl} < 107. We also find that the observed low l (l <= 8) modes show a slight anti-correlation with the Galactic foreground, but not exceeding 95% confidence, and that the topology defined by these modes is consistent with that of a Gaussian random-phase distribution (within 95% confidence).

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J. Richard Gott III, Wesley N. Colley, Chan-Gyung Park, Changbom Park, Charles Mugnolo. 2006-10-25. Genus Topology of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the WMAP 3-Year Data. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11730.x

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