Estimate of the Cosmological Bispectrum from the MAXIMA-1 Cosmic Microwave Background Map

M. G. Santos; A. Balbi; J. Borrill; P. G. Ferreira; S. Hanany; A. H. Jaffe; A. T. Lee; J. Magueijo; B. Rabii; P. L. Richards; G. F. Smoot; R. Stompor; C. D. Winant; J. H. P. Wu

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.241302

Estimate of the Cosmological Bispectrum from the MAXIMA-1 Cosmic Microwave Background Map

M. G. Santos, A. Balbi, J. Borrill, P. G. Ferreira, S. Hanany, A. H. Jaffe, A. T. Lee, J. Magueijo, B. Rabii, P. L. Richards, G. F. Smoot, R. Stompor, C. D. Winant, and J. H. P. Wu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 241302 – Published 3 June 2002

Abstract

We use the measurement of the cosmic microwave background taken during the MAXIMA-1 flight to estimate the bispectrum of cosmological perturbations. We propose an estimator for the bispectrum that is appropriate in the flat sky approximation, apply it to the MAXIMA-1 data, and evaluate errors using bootstrap methods. We compare the estimated value with what would be expected if the sky signal were Gaussian and find that it is indeed consistent, with a $χ^{2}$ per degree of freedom of approximately unity. This measurement places constraints on models of inflation.

Received 31 July 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.241302

Authors & Affiliations

M. G. Santos¹, A. Balbi^3,4,5, J. Borrill^6,4, P. G. Ferreira¹, S. Hanany^7,4, A. H. Jaffe^4,8,2, A. T. Lee^9,4,5, J. Magueijo¹⁰, B. Rabii^4,9, P. L. Richards^9,4, G. F. Smoot^9,4,5,8, R. Stompor^6,8,2, C. D. Winant^4,9, and J. H. P. Wu²

¹Astrophysics & Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
²Department of Astronomy, 601 Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3411
³Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Tor Vergata, Roma, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, I-00133 Roma, Italy
⁴Center for Particle Astrophysics, 301 Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7304
⁵Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720
⁶National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720
⁷School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church St. S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
⁸Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
⁹Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300
¹⁰Theoretical Physics, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom