Comparison of the Sachs-Wolfe Effect for Gaussian and Non-Gaussian Fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper compares the Sachs-Wolfe effect for Gaussian and non-Gaussian cosmological fluctuations, finding that non-Gaussian perturbations produce a smaller effect under certain normalizations, with implications for understanding cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of Sachs-Wolfe effects for Gaussian and non-Gaussian fluctuations for a specific power spectrum, highlighting differences in magnitude.

Findings

Non-Gaussian fluctuations yield a smaller Sachs-Wolfe effect when normalized by mass fluctuations.

The result is explained physically and discussed for its general applicability.

The study enhances understanding of how non-Gaussianity influences cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

Abstract

A consequence of non-Gaussian perturbations on the Sachs-Wolfe effect is studied. For a particular power spectrum, predicted Sachs-Wolfe effects are calculated for two cases: Gaussian (random phase) configuration, and a specific kind of non-Gaussian configuration. We obtain a result that the Sachs-Wolfe effect for the latter case is smaller when each temperature fluctuation is properly normalized with respect to the corresponding mass fluctuation ${\delta M\over M}(R)$. The physical explanation and the generality of the result are discussed.