Statistical anisotropy or non-Gaussianity

Glenn Starkman (Case Western Reserve University)

October 25, 2022

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Abstract: There is already considerable evidence that the CMB temperature maps do not represent a typical realization of a Gaussian random statistically isotropic field. If this reflects new underlying physics, does it tell us that the universe is statistically anistropic, non-Gaussian, or both? If instead we posit that we live in a highly anomalous realization, how and when can we discover non-Gaussianity?