Studying anomalies of the cosmic microwave background radiation

• Grant number: 24/17088-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Edivaldo Moura Santos
• Grantee: Geissi Éllen Medeiros Cangussu
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since the first full-sky measurement of the CMB anisotropies by the COBE satellite in the 1990s, several anomalies have been reported that would be in tension with the so called cosmic concordance model, also known as Lambda-CDM. Such anomalies appear preferentially at large angular scales and have been associated either to possible residual contamination in the CMB maps or to new physics beyond the concordance model. In this scientific initiation project, we propose a study plan of these anomalies, focusing in a not so explored anomaly related to the power depletion observed in data with respect to Lambda-CDM in a well-defined multipole region (l in between 10 and 30). The morphology and frequency dependence of the depletion will be studied and the possibility that it is associated to a residual foreground will be explored.