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Cosmic Microwave Background Constraints On Cosmological Models With Large-Scale Isotropy Breaking, Haoxuan Zheng, Emory F. Bunn

Physics Faculty Publications

Several anomalies appear to be present in the large-angle cosmic microwave background anisotropy maps of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, including the alignment of large-scale multipoles. Models in which isotropy is spontaneously broken (e.g., by a scalar field) have been proposed as explanations for these anomalies, as have models in which a preferred direction is imposed during inflation. We examine models inspired by these, in which isotropy is broken by a multiplicative factor with dipole and/or quadrupole terms. We evaluate the evidence provided by the multipole alignment using a Bayesian framework, finding that the evidence in favor of the model …