Is the low-l Microwave Background Cosmic?
Glenn Starkman (Case Physics)
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has measured the
fluctuations in the microwave background radiation over the entire
sky at impressive angular resolution and signal to noise. This
allows us to investigate the properties of the universe on the
largest scales -- its geometry, topology, thermal and expansion
history. But the microwave background radiation on large angular
scales seems to have some rather bizarre statistical properties,
suggesting that either the universe on large scales is much stranger
than we ever imagined or the reported microwave background fluctuations
on large angular scales are not in fact cosmic.
