arXiv subjects

Domenico Marinucci

Publications and source records attributed to Domenico Marinucci.

88 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Spin Needlets for Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Data Analysis

Scalar wavelets have been used extensively in the analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature maps. Spin needlets are a new form of (spin) wavelets which were introduced in the mathematical literature by Geller and Marinucci (2008) as a tool for the analysis of spin random fields. Here we adopt the spin needlet approach for the analysis of CMB polarization measurements. The outcome of experiments measuring the polarization of the CMB are maps of the Stokes Q and U parameters which are spin 2 quantities. Here we discuss how to transform these spin 2 maps into spin 2 needlet coefficients and outline briefly how these coefficients can be used in the analysis of CMB polarization data. We review the most important properties of spin needlets, such as localization in pixel and harmonic space and asymptotic uncorrelation. We discuss several statistical applications, including the relation of angular power spectra to the needlet coefficients, testing for non-Gaussianity on polarization data, and reconstruction of the E and B scalar maps.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Needlet Detection of Features in WMAP CMB Sky and the Impact on Anisotropies and Hemispherical Asymmetries

We apply spherical needlets to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-year cosmic microwave background (CMB) dataset, to search for imprints of non-isotropic features in the CMB sky. We use the needlets localization properties to resolve peculiar features in the CMB sky and to study how these features contribute to the anisotropy power spectrum of the CMB. In addition to the now well-known "cold spot" of the CMB map in the southern hemisphere, we also find two hot spots at greater than 99% confidence level, again in the southern hemisphere and closer to the Galactic plane. While the cold spot contributes to the anisotropy power spectrum in the multipoles between l=6 to l=33, the hot spots are found to be dominating the anisotropy power in the range between l=6 and l=18. Masking both the cold and the two hot spots results in a reduction by about 15% in the amplitude of the angular power spectrum of CMB around l=10. The resulting changes to the cosmological parameters when the power spectrum is estimated masking these features (in addition to the WMAP team's KQ85 mask) are within the 1$σ$ errors published with the WMAP mask only. We also study the asymmetry between the angular power spectra evaluated on the northern and southern hemispheres. When the features detected by needlets are masked, we find that the difference in the power, measured in terms of the anisotropy variance between l=4 and l=18, is reduced by a factor 2. We make available a mask related to needlet features for more detailed studies on asymmetries in the CMB anisotropy sky.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Representations of SO(3) and angular polyspectra

We characterize the angular polyspectra, of arbitrary order, associated with isotropic fields defined on the sphere S^2. Our techniques rely heavily on group representation theory, and specifically on the properties of Wigner matrices and Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. The findings of the present paper constitute a basis upon which one can build formal procedures for the statistical analysis and the probabilistic modelization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, which is currently a crucial topic of investigation in cosmology. We also outline an application to random data compression and "simulation" of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients.

math.PR↗

arXiv2008

The needlets bispectrum

The purpose of this paper is to join two different threads of the recent literature on random fields on the sphere, namely the statistical analysis of higher order angular power spectra on one hand, and the construction of second-generation wavelets on the sphere on the other. To this aim, we introduce the needlets bispectrum and we derive a number of convergence results. Here, the limit theory is developed in the high resolution sense. The leading motivation of these results is the need for statistical procedures for searching non-Gaussianity in Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.

math.ST↗

arXiv2007

Group Representations and High-Resolution Central Limit Theorems for Subordinated Spherical Random Fields

We study the weak convergence (in the high-frequency limit) of the frequency components associated with Gaussian-subordinated, spherical and isotropic random fields. In particular, we provide conditions for asymptotic Gaussianity and we establish a new connection with random walks on the the dual of SO(3), which mirrors analogous results previously established for fields defined on Abelian groups (see Marinucci and Peccati (2007)). Our work is motivated by applications to cosmological data analysis, and specifically by the probabilistic modelling and the statistical analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, which is currently at the frontier of physical research. To obtain our main results, we prove several fine estimates involving convolutions of the so-called Clebsch-Gordan coefficients (which are elements of unitary matrices connecting reducible representations of SO(3)); this allows to intepret most of our asymptotic conditions in terms of coupling of angular momenta in a quantum mechanical system. Part of the proofs are based on recently established criteria for the weak convergence of multiple Wiener-Itô integrals.

math.PR↗

arXiv2006

Dark Energy Constraints from Needlets Analysis of Wmap3 and NVSS Data

We cross-correlate the new 3 year Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe (WMAP3) cosmic microwave background (CMB) data with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) radio galaxy data, and find further evidence of late integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect taking place at late times in cosmic history. Our detection makes use of a novel statistical method based on a new construction of spherical wavelets, called needlets. The null hypothesis (no ISW) is excluded at more than 99.7% confidence. When we compare the measured cross-correlation with the theoretical predictions of standard, flat cosmological models with a generalized dark energy component parameterized by its density, $\omde$, equation of state $w$ and speed of sound $\cs2$, we find $0.3\leq\omde\leq0.8$ at 95% c.l., independently of $\cs2$ and $w$. If dark energy is assumed to be a cosmological constant ($w=-1$), the bound on density shrinks to $0.41\leq\omde\leq 0.79$. Models without dark energy are excluded at more than $4σ$. The bounds on $w$ depend rather strongly on the assumed value of $\cs2$.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect from the cross correlation of WMAP3 year and the NRAO VLA sky survey data: New results and constraints on dark energy

We cross-correlate the new 3 year Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe (WMAP) cosmic microwave background (CMB) data with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) radio galaxy data, and find further evidence of late integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect taking place at late times in cosmic history. Our detection makes use of a novel statistical method \cite{Baldi et al. 2006a, Baldi et al. 2006b} based on a new construction of spherical wavelets, called needlets. The null hypothesis (no ISW) is excluded at more than 99.7% confidence. When we compare the measured cross-correlation with the theoretical predictions of standard, flat cosmological models with a generalized dark energy component parameterized by its density, $\omde$, equation of state $w$ and speed of sound $\cs2$, we find $0.3\leq\omde\leq0.8$ at 95% c.l., independently of $\cs2$ and $w$. If dark energy is assumed to be a cosmological constant ($w=-1$), the bound on density shrinks to $0.41\leq\omde\leq 0.79$. Models without dark energy are excluded at more than $4σ$. The bounds on $w$ depend rather strongly on the assumed value of $\cs2$. We find that models with more negative equation of state (such as phantom models) are a worse fit to the data in the case $\cs2=1$ than in the case $\cs2=0$.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Polynomial Cointegration among Stationary Processes with Long Memory

n this paper we consider polynomial cointegrating relationships among stationary processes with long range dependence. We express the regression functions in terms of Hermite polynomials and we consider a form of spectral regression around frequency zero. For these estimates, we establish consistency by means of a more general result on continuously averaged estimates of the spectral density matrix at frequency zero

math.ST↗

arXiv2006

High-frequency asymptotics for subordinated isotropic fields on an Abelian compact group

Let T* be a random field indexed by an Abelian compact group G, and suppose that T* has the form T* = F(T(g)), where T is Gaussian and isotropic. The aim of this paper is to establish high-frequency central limit theorems for the Fourier coefficients associated to T*. The proofs of our main results involve recently established criteria for the weak convergence of multiple Wiener-Itô integrals. Our research is motivated by physical applications, mainly related to the probabilistic modelization of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. In this connection, the case of the n-dimensional torus is analyzed in detail.

math.PR↗

arXiv2006

High Frequency Asymptotics for Wavelet-Based Tests for Gaussianity and Isotropy on the Torus

We prove a CLT for skewness and kurtosis of the wavelets coefficients of a stationary field on the torus. The results are in the framework of the fixed-domain asymptotics, i.e. we refer to observations of a single field which is sampled at higher and higher frequencies. We consider also studentized statistics for the case of an unknown correlation structure. The results are motivated by the analysis of cosmological data or high-frequency financial data sets, with a particular interest towards testing for Gaussianity and isotropy

math.ST↗

arXiv2006

High-resolution asymptotics for the angular bispectrum of spherical random fields

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of the angular bispectrum of spherical random fields. Here, the asymptotic theory is developed in the framework of fixed-radius fields, which are observed with increasing resolution as the sample size grows. The results we present are then exploited in a set of procedures aimed at testing non-Gaussianity; for these statistics, we are able to show convergence to functionals of standard Brownian motion under the null hypothesis. Analytic results are also presented on the behavior of the tests in the presence of a broad class of non-Gaussian alternatives. The issue of testing for non-Gaussianity on spherical random fields has recently gained enormous empirical importance, especially in connection with the statistical analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation.

math.PR↗

arXiv2004

The empirical process on Gaussian spherical harmonics

We establish weak convergence of the empirical process on the spherical harmonics of a Gaussian random field in the presence of an unknown angular power spectrum. This result suggests various Gaussianity tests with an asymptotic justification. The issue of testing for Gaussianity on isotropic spherical random fields has recently received strong empirical attention in the cosmological literature, in connection with the statistical analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation.

math.ST↗

arXiv2004

Asymmetries in the local curvature of the WMAP data

We use the local curvature to investigate the possible existence of non-Gaussianity/asymmetry in the WMAP data. Considering the full sky we find results which are consistent with the Gaussian assumption. However, strong non-Gaussian features emerge when considering the northern and southern galactic hemisphere separately, particularly on scales between 1 and 5 degrees. Quite interestingly, the maximum non-Gaussianity is found for hemispheres centered near the ecliptic poles, which might suggest the presence of some systematic effect. The direction of the asymmetry seems consistent with the findings by Eriksen et al. 2004.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Search for non-Gaussianity in pixel, harmonic and wavelet space: compared and combined

We present a comparison between three approaches to test non-Gaussianity of cosmic microwave background data. The Minkowski functionals, the empirical process method and the skewness of wavelet coefficients are applied to maps generated from non-standard inflationary models and to Gaussian maps with point sources included. We discuss the different power of the pixel, harmonic and wavelet space methods on these simulated almost full-sky data (with Planck like noise). We also suggest a new procedure consisting of a combination of statistics in pixel, harmonic and wavelet space.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

The extended empirical process test for non-Gaussianity in the CMB, with an application to non-Gaussian inflationary models

In (Hansen et al. 2002) we presented a new approach for measuring non-Gaussianity of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy pattern, based on the multivariate empirical distribution function of the spherical harmonics a_lm of a CMB map. The present paper builds upon the same ideas and proposes several improvements and extensions. More precisely, we exploit the additional information on the random phases of the a_lm to provide further tests based on the empirical distribution function. Also we take advantage of the effect of rotations in improving the power of our procedures. The suggested tests are implemented on physically motivated models of non-Gaussian fields; Monte-Carlo simulations suggest that this approach may be very promising in the analysis of non-Gaussianity generated by non-standard models of inflation. We address also some experimentally meaningful situations, such as the presence of instrumental noise and a galactic cut in the map.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Testing for non-Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background in harmonic space: an empirical process approach

We present a new, model-independent approach for measuring non-Gaussianity of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy pattern. Our approach is based on the empirical distribution function of the normalized spherical harmonic expansion coefficients a_lm of a nearly full-sky CMB map, like the ones expected from forthcoming satellite experiments. Using a set of Kolmogorov-Smirnov type tests, we check for Gaussianity and independency of the a_lm. We test the method on two non-Gaussian toy-models of the CMB, one generated in spherical harmonic space and one in pixel (real) space. We also provide some rigorous results, possibly of independent interest, on the exact distribution of the spherical harmonic coefficients normalized by an estimated angular power spectrum.

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