https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201920609017
Clustering of hotspots in the cosmic microwave background
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore
* e-mail: phyyja@nus.edu.sg
Published online: 19 April 2019
The physics behind the origin and composition of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a well-established topic in the field of Cosmology. Literature on CMB anisotropies reveal consistency with Gaussianity [1], but these were conducted on full multi-frequency temperature maps. In this thesis, we utilise clustering algorithms to specifically conduct statistical analyses on the distribution of hotspots in the CMB. We describe a series of data processing and clustering methodologies conducted, with results that conclusively show that the counts-in-cells distribution of hotspots in the CMB does not follow a Poisson distribution. Rather, the distribution exhibits a much closer fit to both the Negative Binomial Distribution (NBD) and the Gravitational Quasi-Equilibrium Distribution (GQED). From this result, we conclude that structure likely existed in the early universe, from the period of the recombination Epoch, possibly opening new insights in the field of galaxy formation.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
