Open AccessThe correlation of peaks in the microwave background
Author(s) -
Heavens Alan F.,
Sheth Ravi K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.03015.x
Subject(s) - physics , cosmic microwave background , correlation function (quantum field theory) , planck , observable , cosmic background radiation , spectral density , correlation , statistical physics , inflation (cosmology) , gaussian , non gaussianity , microwave , noise (video) , astrophysics , statistics , astronomy , quantum mechanics , anisotropy , geometry , mathematics , artificial intelligence , computer science , dielectric , image (mathematics)
We present accurate small‐angle predictions of the correlation function of hotspots in the microwave background radiation for Gaussian theories such as those predicted in most inflation models. The correlation function of peaks above a certain threshold depends only on the threshold and the power spectrum of temperature fluctuations. Since these are both potentially observable quantities in a microwave background map, there are no adjustable parameters in the predictions. These correlations should therefore provide a powerful test of the Gaussian hypothesis, and provide a useful discriminant between inflation and topological defect models such as the cosmic string model. The correlations have a number of oscillatory features, which should be detectable at high signal‐to‐noise ratio with future satellite experiments such as MAP and Planck .