Cosmology Seminar Announcement Dr. Dragan Huterer University of Chicago & Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics " Is the large-scale microwave background cosmic? " Date: Thursday, March 10, 2005 Time: 12:10 pm 416 Physics Abstract: Recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies by the WMAP experiment provide a unique window to the processes in the early universe. Tests of gaussianity and isotropy of the CMB are particularly important, as they may lead to evidence for exotic particle physics models processes in the early universe, or perhaps nontrivial topology. In the first part of the talk I present "multipole vectors", a new basis to represent the CMB anisotropy. I then consider large-scale anisotropies as measured by the WMAP experiment. While the measurements are generally in good agreement with the currently favored cosmological model, large-scale CMB anisotropies exhibit statistically significant and entirely unexpected correlations with directions defined by the solar system. I discuss these findings and their relation to other widely discussed results inferred from the CMB.

E-Mail: dhuterer@cfcp.uchicago.edu
Web Page: http://kicp.uchicago.edu/~dhuterer/