Non-Gaussian Cosmostatistics and the Beginning and Evolution of the Universe – CosmoStats

The Planck space craft is mapping the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization anisotropies across the entire sky with unprecedented resolution, signal-to-noise, and frequency coverage. To date, CMB observations have focused largely on the two-point correlations (or power spectrum) which fully characterize the Gaussian fluctuations in these maps. Beyond this, however, the study of non-Gaussian contributions to the fluctuations, in the CMB as well as in the large-scale matter distribution, has emerged as a powerful new probe of the origin of structures in the very early Universe and their subsequent evolution.

This proposal is aimed at exploiting this new probe as a way to realize the full combined potential of the Planck data and complementary data sets which probe the large scale distribution of matter in the Universe. The goal is to infer the initial conditions of the Universe—its properties at the highest energies during the first instants of time. This opens a cosmological window onto the fundamental physics of the Beginning, far beyond the reach of particle accelerators.