Estimate of the cosmological bispectrum from the MAXIMA-1 cosmic microwave background map.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2002;
88:241302. [PMID:
12059290 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.88.241302]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2001] [Revised: 02/02/2002] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
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 chi(2) per degree of freedom of approximately unity. This measurement places constraints on models of inflation.
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