Polarized Spots in Anisotropic Open Universes

Abstract

We calculate the temperature and polarization patterns generated in anisotropic cosmological models drawn from the Bianchi classification. We show that localized features in the temperature pattern, perhaps similar to the cold spot observed in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data, can be generated in models with negative spatial curvature, i.e. Bianchi types V and VII${}_h$. Both these models also generate coherent polarization patterns. In Bianchi VII${}_h$, however, rotation of the polarization angle as light propagates along geodesics can convert E modes into B modes but in Bianchi V this is not necessarily the case. It is in principle possible, therefore, to generate localized temperature features without violating existing observational constraints on the odd-parity component of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background.

6 pages, 1 figure, revisions to match version published in CQG

References in corpus (19)

• HEALPix -- a Framework for High Resolution Discretization, and Fast Analysis of Data Distributed on the Sphere
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Preliminary Maps and Basic Results
• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results
• Three Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis
• Statistics of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
• Detection of non-Gaussianity in the WMAP 1-year data using spherical wavelets
• CMB Anisotropies: Total Angular Momentum Method
• Evidence of vorticity and shear at large angular scales in the WMAP data: a violation of cosmological isotropy?
• The non-Gaussian Cold Spot in the 3-year WMAP data
• The non-Gaussian Cold Spot in WMAP: significance, morphology and foreground contribution
• Parity violation constraints using 2006-2007 QUaD CMB polarization spectra
• A high-significance detection of non-Gaussianity in the WMAP 1-year data using directional spherical wavelets
• Higher Criticism Statistic: Detecting and Identifying Non-Gaussianity in the WMAP First Year Data
• The CMB cold spot: texture, cluster or void?
• Bianchi Model CMB Polarization and its Implications for CMB Anomalies
• On the Viability of Bianchi Type VIIh Models with Dark Energy
• A high-significance detection of non-Gaussianity in the WMAP 3-year data using directional spherical wavelets
• From Equivalence Principles to Cosmology: Cosmic Polarization Rotation, CMB Observation, Neutrino Number Asymmetry, Lorentz Invariance and CPT
• Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis of Bianchi VII_h models

Cited by in corpus (5)

• New Classes of Off-Diagonal Cosmological Solutions in Einstein Gravity
• Statistical Characterization of Temperature Patterns in Anisotropic Cosmologies
• Temperature and Polarization Patterns in Anisotropic Cosmologies
• Cosmological Attractors and Anisotropies in Two Measure Theories, Effective EYMH systems, and Off--Diagonal Inflation Models
• Semiclassical Length Measure from a Quantum-Gravity Wave Function