A Statistically Robust 3-Sigma Detection of Non-Gaussianity in the WMAP Data Using Hot and Cold Spots

dc.creatorLarson, David L.
dc.creatorWandelt, Benjamin D.
dc.date2005-05-03
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:17:33Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:17:33Z
dc.descriptionWe present a careful frequentist analysis of one- and two-point statistics of the hot and cold spots in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data obtained by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Our main result is the detection of a new anomaly at the 3-sigma level using temperature-weighted extrema correlation functions. We obtain this result using a simple hypothesis test which reduces the maximum risk of a false detection to the same level as the claimed significance of the test. We further present a detailed study of the robustness of our earlier claim (Larson and Wandelt 2004) under variations in the noise model and in the resolution of the map. Free software which implements our test is available online.
dc.description19 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D, full resolution version available at http://cosmos.astro.uiuc.edu/~dlarson1/facts/
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0505046
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0505046
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/9213
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleA Statistically Robust 3-Sigma Detection of Non-Gaussianity in the WMAP Data Using Hot and Cold Spots
dc.typetext

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