CMB low multipole alignments across WMAP and \emph{Planck} data releases

Abstract

The first observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from NASA's \emph{Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe} (WMAP) led to finding `alignment' anomalies not expected from fluctuations in the isotropic cosmological model. We study the data of all 8 full-sky public releases since then to test for anomalous alignments and shapes of the first 60 multipoles, i.e., over the range $2\le l\le 61$. We use rotationally invariant and covariant statistics to test isotropy of all subsequent WMAP data releases, along with those from the ESA's \emph{Planck} mission. Anomalous alignments among the multipoles $l=1,2,3$ are very consistent and robust. More alignments are detected, some of them new, while significance is diluted by the large range of the search. Power entropy, a measure of the randomness of the multipoles, is consistently anomalous at about $2\sigma$ level or better across all data releases. It appears that the CMB is not as random as the cosmological principle predicts on large angular scales

16 pages, 7+4 figures, 4 appendices. Version accepted in MNRAS

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