Conformal Cyclic Cosmology Signatures and Anomalies of the CMB Sky

Abstract

Circles of low-variance and Hawking points in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), resulting from black hole mergers and black hole evaporation, respectively, in a previous cycle of the universe, have been predicted as possible evidence for the Conformal Cyclic Cosmology model (CCC) introduced by R. Penrose. We present a high-resolution search for such low-variance circles in the Planck and WMAP CMB data, and introduce HawkingNet, our machine learning open-source software based on a ResNet18 algorithm, to search for Hawking points in the CMB. We find that CMB anomalies, consisting of a few bright pixels, erroneously lead to regions with many low-variance circles, and consequently sets of concentric low-variance circles, when applying the search criteria used in previous work [V.G. Gurzadyan, R. Penrose]. After removing the anomalies from the data no statistically significant low-variance circles can be found. Concerning Hawking points, also no statistically significant evidence is found when using a Gaussian temperature amplitude model over 1 degree opening angle and after accounting for CMB anomalies. That CMB anomalies themselves might be remnants of Hawking points is not supported by low-variance and/or low-temperature circles around them. The absence of such statistically-significant distinct features in the currently available CMB data does not disprove the CCC model but implies that higher resolution CMB data and/or refined CCC based predictions are needed to pursue the search for CCC signatures.Comment: prepared for JCAP rev