title: Tests for Gaussianity of the MAXIMA-1 cosmic microwave background map.
abstract: Gaussianity of the cosmological perturbations is one of the key predictions of standard inflation, but it is violated by other models of structure formation such as cosmic defects. We present the first test of the Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on subdegree angular scales, where deviations from Gaussianity are most likely to occur. We apply the methods of moments, cumulants, the Kolmogorov test, the chi(2) test, and Minkowski functionals in eigen, real, Wiener-filtered, and signal-whitened spaces, to the MAXIMA-1 CMB anisotropy data. We find that the data, which probe angular scales between 10 arcmin and 5 deg, are consistent with Gaussianity. These results show consistency with the standard inflation and place constraints on the existence of cosmic defects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3411, USA.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balbi
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borrill
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hanany
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Jaffe
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rabii
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Smoot
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stompor
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Winant