Topology of Large Scale Structure in the Universe

Wesley N. Colley, Ph.D.

Center for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis
University of Alabama Huntsville

Most viable cosmological models hold that large-scale structures in the Universe arose from the gravitational growth of primordial density perturbations existing at the time of recombination. Standard Inflation holds that these perturbations arose from the random quantum fluctuations in the pre-Inflation Universe. Such fluctuations are predicted by quantum theory to be distributed normally in density, and to have random complex phases, which is to say that they are Gaussian random-phase (GRP) fluctuations. Purely GRP fluctuations have a predictable topology. We have tested the GRP hypothesis in the Cosmic Microwave Background by measuring the topology of the fluctuations seen by NASA's Wilkinson Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We have found remarkable consistency in the GRP hypothesis, thus confirming the Inflationary prediction.

Presented at ISDC 2011 - Huntsville. Paper and presentation charts are not available.