Cosmic Microwave Background Maps Lensed by Cosmological Structures: Simulations and Statistical Analysis

A method for ray-tracing through n-body simulations has been recently proposed. It is based on a periodic universe covered by simulation boxes. Photons move along appropriate directions to avoid periodicity effects. Here an improved version of this method is applied to simulate lensed CMB maps and maps of lens deformations. Particle mesh n-body simulations with appropriate boxes and resolutions are used to evolve the nonlinear inhomogeneities until the present time. The resulting maps are statistically analyzed to look for deviations from Gaussianity. These deviations are measured, for the first time, using correlations for configurations of n directions (n<=6). A wide range of angular scales are considered. Some interesting prospects are outlined.