TY - JOUR
T1 - Searching for ring-like structures in the Cosmic Microwave Background
AU - Lopez, Melissa
AU - Bonizzi, Pietro
AU - Driessens, Kurt
AU - Koekoek, Gideon
AU - de Vries, Jacco
AU - Westra, Ronald
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - In this research, we present an alternative methodology to search for ring-like structures in the sky with unusually large temperature gradients, namely, Hawking points (HPs), in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which are possible observational effects associated with Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). To assess the performance of our method, we constructed an artificial data set of HP, according to CCC, and we were able to retrieve $95 {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of ring-like anomalies from it. Furthermore, we scanned the Planck CMB sky map and compared it to simulations according to lambda CDM, where we applied robust statistical tests to assess the existence of HP. Even though no significant ring-like structures were observed, we report the largest excess of HP candidates found at alpha =1 per cent significance level for the analysed sky maps (CMB at 70GHz, SEVEM, SMICA, and Commander-Ruler), and we stress the need to continue the theoretical and experimental research in this direction.
AB - In this research, we present an alternative methodology to search for ring-like structures in the sky with unusually large temperature gradients, namely, Hawking points (HPs), in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which are possible observational effects associated with Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). To assess the performance of our method, we constructed an artificial data set of HP, according to CCC, and we were able to retrieve $95 {{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of ring-like anomalies from it. Furthermore, we scanned the Planck CMB sky map and compared it to simulations according to lambda CDM, where we applied robust statistical tests to assess the existence of HP. Even though no significant ring-like structures were observed, we report the largest excess of HP candidates found at alpha =1 per cent significance level for the analysed sky maps (CMB at 70GHz, SEVEM, SMICA, and Commander-Ruler), and we stress the need to continue the theoretical and experimental research in this direction.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3485
DO - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3485
M3 - Article
SN - 1745-3925
VL - 519
SP - 922
EP - 930
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
IS - 1
ER -