Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies

[BJC]

My understanding was the circular patterns found by analyzing the anisotropies of the CMB provided observational evidence of inflation. Two questions:

 

1) are these circular patterns the same patterns that Penrose etal. uses to support his conformal cyclic cosmology theory?

 

2) Are the anisotropies derived from software analysis (i.e. Fourier analysis) or are they derived from slight rotations in the telescope?

[Spyman]

Empirical tests

In 2010, Penrose and V. G. Gurzadyan published a preprint of a paper claiming that observations of the cosmic microwave background made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the BOOMERanG experiment showed concentric anomalies which were consistent with the CCC hypothesis, with a low probability of the null hypothesis that the observations in question were caused by chance. However, the statistical significance of the claimed detection has since been questioned. Three groups have independently attempted to reproduce these results, but found that the detection of the concentric anomalies was not statistically significant, in the sense that such circles would appear in a proper Gaussian simulation of the anisotropy in the CMB data. Penrose and Gurzadyan responded that, while the presence of individual circles in the CMB data was not statistically significant, they claim to have found concentric families of circles, the presence of which cannot be found in the random Gaussian simulation of the data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_cyclic_cosmology

 

 

Here is an old thread regarding the claim with links to several papers: Echos of a bygone Aeon

[BJC]

Thank you but that was not exactly my question. I understand that the CCC theory and predicted 2nd, 3rd anisotropies are in question. It does appear as if the objections were from analysis of the processed map and not from a reinterpretation of the raw data.

 

 

The detected anisotropies support slow-roll inflation. I just assumed the time period of the CCC theory was prior to inflation and the circular patterns were separate from the "inflationary temperature variations". But as most objections seem focused on the 2nd, 3rd anisotropies of the processed map i wondered if the CCC "circular pattern anisotropies" were separate from the "inflationary temperature variations".

 

My second question has more to do with the mechanics and software used to create a processed map. Briefly how are the local conditions such as dust, camera angle, etc. resolved to correctly combine the data. For instance the Hubble Ultra-deep field uses "dither and drizzle" techniques to resolve local conditions prior to combining the raw data sets into a processed map.

[Spyman]

Sorry that I can't help you further, but there should be references concerning technical details of optical system and data processing methods, in the papers I provided a link to.