Extending the WMAP Bound on the Size of the Universe

Abstract

Clues to the shape of our Universe can be found by searching the CMB for matching circles of temperature patterns. A full sky search of the CMB, mapped extremely accurately by NASA's WMAP satellite, returned no detection of such matching circles and placed a lower bound on the size of the Universe at 24 Gpc. This lower bound can be extended by optimally filtering the WMAP power spectrum. More stringent bounds can be placed on specific candidate topologies by using a a combination statistic. We use optimal filtering and the combination statistic to rule out the infamous "soccer ball universe'' model.

9 pages, 16 figures

Cited by in corpus (25)

• The Beginning and Evolution of the Universe
• The optimal phase of the generalised Poincare dodecahedral space hypothesis implied by the spatial cross-correlation function of the WMAP sky maps
• A new analysis of Poincaré dodecahedral space model
• Imprints of spherical non-trivial topologies on the CMB
• A test of the Poincare dodecahedral space topology hypothesis with the WMAP CMB data
• An improved cosmic crystallography method to detect holonomies in flat spaces
• What is flat ΛCDM, and may we choose it?
• A spatial correlation analysis for a toroidal universe
• Circles-in-the-sky searches and observable cosmic topology in a flat Universe
• Promise of Future Searches for Cosmic Topology
• Revisiting a pre-inflationary radiation era and its effect on the CMB power spectrum
• Poincare dodecahedral space parameter estimates
• Cosmic topology. Part I. Limits on orientable Euclidean manifolds from circle searches
• Cosmic topology. Part IIa. Eigenmodes, correlation matrices, and detectability of orientable Euclidean manifolds
• A small Universe
• The Hantzsche-Wendt Manifold in Cosmic Topology
• Cosmic topology. Part IIIa. Microwave background parity violation without parity-violating microphysics
• Probing spatial orientability of Friedmann--Robertson--Walker spatially flat spacetime
• Cosmic topology. Part IVa. Classification of manifolds using machine learning: a case study with small toroidal universes
• Searching for Stringy Topologies in the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Cosmic topology. Part Ic. Limits on lens spaces from circle searches
• Effect of the cubic torus topology on cosmological perturbations
• Cosmic topology. Part IIIb. Eigenmodes and correlation matrices of spin-2 perturbations in orientable Euclidean manifolds
• Gods as Topological Invariants
• The Universe Originating from an Empty Planck-Size Torus