Tests of Cosmological Inhomogeneity Using WMAP

This paper reports on the latest results obtained from studies of the calibrated Time-Ordered Data of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (9-yr) mission that has in the past been used to determine the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, although with a novel objective. The purpose of this work has been to examine what can be inferred from these data about the local inhomogeneity of the CMBR, which would be in this case an apparent radial variation of the brightness (or effective temperature) at the same point of the celestial sky as seen by the WMAP spacecraft instruments from the center of observation, namely the Sun. The usual studies of anisotropy normally have averaged the observed temperature of any given point on the celestial sky over one full annual orbit of the WMAP spacecraft around the Sun to produce the well-known maps. Inhomogeneity of the kind being sought here, however, would manifest itself as a systematic variation of the apparent temperature at that point as a function of the orbital position of the spacecraft. The detection of such inhomogeneity, if it could be confirmed by subsequent observations, could significantly impact the standard cosmological paradigm. The computational approach used thus far in that search, over the last four years of study by supercomputer facilities at UCSD, has been to examine the differences of temperature seen of the same points on the sky, taken in pairs corresponding to the pointing directions of the A and B radiometer horns of the instrument, from different orbital positions of the spacecraft. From those observed differences of temperature and the corresponding angular separations of the respective orbital positions — here limited to values greater than or equal to 44 degrees out of a maximum available range of 1 - 45 degrees — an apparent radial gradient of temperature could be computed with lowest uncertainties. A small but significant gradient of temperature tentatively has been found, and plans are under way for the testing and confirmation of these findings by using the latest data from the more recent ESA Planck spacecraft archive.