Open AccessIs the low cosmic microwave background quadrupole a signature of spatial curvature?
Author(s) -
Efstathiou G.
Publication year - 2003
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.1365-8711.2003.06940.x
Subject(s) - physics , cmb cold spot , cosmic microwave background , amplitude , quadrupole , cosmology , astrophysics , curvature , cosmic background radiation , spectral density , anisotropy , dark matter , observational cosmology , quantum mechanics , statistics , geometry , mathematics
The temperature anisotropy power spectrum measured with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) at high multipoles is in spectacular agreement with an inflationary Λ‐dominated cold dark matter cosmology. However, the low‐order multipoles (especially the quadrupole) have lower amplitudes than expected from this cosmology, indicating a need for new physics. Here we speculate that the low quadrupole amplitude is associated with spatial curvature. We show that positively curved models are consistent with the WMAP data and that the quadrupole amplitude can be reproduced if the primordial spectrum truncates on scales comparable to the curvature scale.