581 research outputs found
Can one reconstruct masked CMB sky?
The CMB maps obtained by observations always possess domains which have to be
masked due to severe uncertainties with respect to the genuine CMB signal.
Cosmological analyses ideally use full CMB maps in order to get e.g. the
angular power spectrum. There are attempts to reconstruct the masked regions at
least at low resolutions, i.e. at large angular scales, before a further
analysis follows. In this paper, the quality of the reconstruction is
investigated for the ILC (7yr) map as well as for 1000 CMB simulations of the
LambdaCDM concordance model. The latter allows an error estimation for the
reconstruction algorithm which reveals some drawbacks. The analysis points to
errors of the order of a significant fraction of the mean temperature
fluctuation of the CMB. The temperature 2-point correlation function C(theta)
is evaluated for different reconstructed sky maps which leads to the conclusion
that it is safest to compute it on the cut-sky
Cosmic Topology of Polyhedral Double-Action Manifolds
A special class of non-trivial topologies of the spherical space S^3 is
investigated with respect to their cosmic microwave background (CMB)
anisotropies. The observed correlations of the anisotropies on the CMB sky
possess on large separation angles surprising low amplitudes which might be
naturally be explained by models of the Universe having a multiconnected
spatial space. We analysed in CQG 29(2012)215005 the CMB properties of prism
double-action manifolds that are generated by a binary dihedral group D^*_p and
a cyclic group Z_n up to a group order of 180. Here we extend the CMB analysis
to polyhedral double-action manifolds which are generated by the three binary
polyhedral groups (T^*, O^*, I^*) and a cyclic group Z_n up to a group order of
1000. There are 20 such polyhedral double-action manifolds. Some of them turn
out to have even lower CMB correlations on large angles than the Poincare
dodecahedron
How well-proportioned are lens and prism spaces?
The CMB anisotropies in spherical 3-spaces with a non-trivial topology are
analysed with a focus on lens and prism shaped fundamental cells. The
conjecture is tested that well proportioned spaces lead to a suppression of
large-scale anisotropies according to the observed cosmic microwave background
(CMB). The focus is put on lens spaces L(p,q) which are supposed to be oddly
proportioned. However, there are inhomogeneous lens spaces whose shape of the
Voronoi domain depends on the position of the observer within the manifold.
Such manifolds possess no fixed measure of well-proportioned and allow a
predestined test of the well-proportioned conjecture. Topologies having the
same Voronoi domain are shown to possess distinct CMB statistics which thus
provide a counter-example to the well-proportioned conjecture. The CMB
properties are analysed in terms of cyclic subgroups Z_p, and new point of view
for the superior behaviour of the Poincar\'e dodecahedron is found
Cosmic microwave anisotropies in an inhomogeneous compact flat universe
The anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are computed for
the half-turn space E_2 which represents a compact flat model of the Universe,
i.e. one with finite volume. This model is inhomogeneous in the sense that the
statistical properties of the CMB depend on the position of the observer within
the fundamental cell. It is shown that the half-turn space describes the
observed CMB anisotropies on large scales better than the concordance model
with infinite volume. For most observer positions it matches the temperature
correlation function even slightly better than the well studied 3-torus
topology
Level spacings and periodic orbits
Starting from a semiclassical quantization condition based on the trace
formula, we derive a periodic-orbit formula for the distribution of spacings of
eigenvalues with k intermediate levels. Numerical tests verify the validity of
this representation for the nearest-neighbor level spacing (k=0). In a second
part, we present an asymptotic evaluation for large spacings, where consistency
with random matrix theory is achieved for large k. We also discuss the relation
with the method of Bogomolny and Keating [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 (1996) 1472] for
two-point correlations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; major revisions in the second part, range of
validity of asymptotic evaluation clarifie
Sustainable product development strategies: Business planning and performance implications
Copyright © 2012 by Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Manufacturing firms are under many financial and competitive pressures which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life and secondly, manufacturing approaches which reduce resource usage. This paper outlines three different sustainable development strategies for different product types and describes the cost implications for manufacturers across the life-cycle. The performance measures affected by these strategies are examined drawing on product development case studies from a number of high technology sectors to highlight the different approaches taken. The results are intended to aid manufacturers during the earliest stages of business planning to consider alternative product development approaches which are more sustainable
Hot pixel contamination in the CMB correlation function?
Recently, it was suggested that the map-making procedure, which is applied to
the time-ordered CMB data by the WMAP team, might be flawed by hot pixels. This
could lead to a bias in the pixels having an angular distance of about 141
degrees from hot pixels due to the differential measuring process of the
satellite WMAP. Here, the bias is confirmed, and the temperature two-point
correlation function C(theta) is reevaluated by excluding the affected pixels.
It is shown that the most significant effect occurs in C(theta) at the largest
angles near theta = 180 degrees. Furthermore, the corrected correlation
function C(theta) is applied to the cubic topology of the Universe, and it is
found that such a multi-connected universe matches the temperature correlation
better than the LCDM concordance model, provided the cubic length scale is
close to L=4 measured in units of the Hubble length
The Topology and Size of the Universe from the Cosmic Microwave Background
We study the possibility that the universe has compact topologies T^3, T^2 x
R^1, or S^1 x R^2 using the seven-year WMAP data. The maximum likelihood 95%
confidence intervals for the size L of the compact direction are 1.7 < L/L_0 <
2.1, 1.8 < L/L_0 < 2.0, 1.2 < L/L_0 < 2.1 for the three cases, respectively,
where L_0=14.4 Gpc is the distance to the last scattering surface. An infinite
universe is compatible with the data at 4.3 sigma. We find using a Bayesian
analysis that the most probable universe has topology T^2 x R^1, with
L/L_0=1.9.Comment: Additional checks, Monte-Carlo skies, and study of dipole
contamination added. References added. 13 pages, 11 figure
Cosmic Topology of Prism Double-Action Manifolds
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in spherical 3-spaces with
a non-trivial topology are studied. This paper discusses the special class of
the so-called double-action manifolds, which are for the first time analysed
with respect to their CMB anisotropies. The CMB anisotropies are computed for
all prism double-action manifolds generated by a binary dihedral and a cyclic
group with a group order of up to 180 leading to 33 different topologies.
Several spaces are found which show a suppression of the CMB anisotropies on
large angular distances as it is found on the real CMB sky. It turns out that
two of these spaces possess Dirichlet domains which are not very far from
highly symmetric polyhedra like Platonic or Archimedean ones
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