Probing Cosmic Strings with Satellite CMB measurements

Abstract

We study the problem of searching for cosmic string signal patterns in the present high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This article discusses a technique capable of recognizing Kaiser-Stebbins effect signatures in total intensity anisotropy maps, and shows that the biggest factor that produces confusion is represented by the acoustic oscillation features of the scale comparable to the size of horizon at recombination. Simulations show that the distribution of null signals for pure Gaussian maps converges to a ${\chi }^2$ distribution, with detectability threshold corresponding to a string induced step signal with an amplitude of about 100 $\muK$ which corresponds to a limit of roughly $G\mu <1.5\times 10^{-6}$. We study the statistics of spurious detections caused by extra-Galactic and Galactic foregrounds. For diffuse Galactic foregrounds, which represents the dominant source of contamination, we derive sky masks outlining the available region of the sky where the Galactic confusion is sub-dominant, specializing our analysis to the case represented by the frequency coverage and nominal sensitivity and resolution of the Planck experiment.

14 pages, 3 figures, to be published in JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Seeking String Theory in the Cosmos
• Searching for Cosmic Strings in CMB Anisotropy Maps using Wavelets and Curvelets
• Search for Cosmic Strings in the COSMOS Survey
• A Bayesian Framework for Cosmic String Searches in CMB Maps
• Large scale CMB anomalies from thawing cosmic strings
• Level Crossing Analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: A method for detecting cosmic strings
• Stochastic gravitational waves from long cosmic strings
• Information Theoretic Bounds on Cosmic String Detection in CMB Maps with Noise
• Inferring Cosmic String Tension through the Neural Network Prediction of String Locations in CMB Maps
• The Frequency-Shift in the Gravitational Microlensing