Geometrical estimators as a test of Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background
We investigate the power of geometrical estimators on detecting non-Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In particular the number, eccentricity and Gaussian curvature of excursion sets above (and below) a threshold are studied. We compare their different performance when applied to...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2001 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/393158 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/393158 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Cosmic microwave background Methods: statistical |
| Sumario: | We investigate the power of geometrical estimators on detecting non-Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In particular the number, eccentricity and Gaussian curvature of excursion sets above (and below) a threshold are studied. We compare their different performance when applied to non-Gaussian simulated maps of small patches of the sky, which take into account the angular resolution and instrumental noise of the Planck satellite. These non-Gaussian simulations are obtained as perturbations of a Gaussian field in two different ways which introduce a small level of skewness or kurtosis in the distribution. A comparison with a classical estimator, the genus, is also shown. We find that the Gaussian curvature is the best of our estimators in all the considered cases. Therefore we propose the use of this quantity as a particularly useful test to look for non-Gaussianity in the CMB. |
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