2000/10/17 by Nicholas G. Phillips, A. Kogut · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/319026
Accepted for publication in ApJ; 20 pages, 6 figures, uses AASTeX v5.0
arxiv created 2000/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We use simulated maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy to quantify the ability of different statistical tests to discriminate between Gaussian and non-Gaussian models. Despite the central limit theorem on large angular scales, both the genus and extrema correlations are able to discriminate between Gaussian models and a semianalytic texture model selected as a physically motivated non-Gaussian model. When run on the COBE 4 year CMB maps, both tests prefer the Gaussian model. Although the bispectrum has comparable statistical power when computed on the full sky, once a Galactic cut is imposed on the data, the bispectrum loses the ability to discriminate between models. Off-diagonal elements of the bispectrum are comparable to the diagonal elements for the non-Gaussian texture model and must be included to obtain maximum statistical power.