Does the small CMB quadrupole moment suggest new physics?

Details Does the small CMB quadrupole moment suggest new physics? Does the small CMB quadrupole moment suggest new physics?

2003-04-30

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0304558v4

JCAP 0309 (2003) 010

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

10 pages 6 figures; corrected eq. 4.1; clarified discussion explaining apparent discrepancy with WMAP's estimate of low quadru

Scientific paper

10.1088/1475-7516/2003/09/010

Motivated by WMAP's confirmation of an anomalously low value of the quadrupole moment of the CMB temperature fluctuations, we investigate the effects on the CMB of cutting off the primordial power spectrum P(k) at low wave numbers. This could arise, for example, from a break in the inflaton potential, a prior period of matter or radiation domination, or an oscillating scalar field which couples to the inflaton. We reanalyze the full WMAP parameter space supplemented by a low-k cutoff for P(k). The temperature correlations by themselves are better fit by a cutoff spectrum, but including the TE temperature-polarization spectrum reduces this preference to a 1.4 sigma effect. Inclusion of large scale structure data does not change the conclusion. If taken seriously, the low-k cutoff is correlated with optical depth so that reionization occurs even earlier than indicated by the WMAP analysis.

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