Imperial College London
Alternate

ProfessorDanielMortlock

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics

Professor of Astrophysics and Statistics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7878d.mortlock Website

 
 
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Location

 

1018ABlackett LaboratorySouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Feeney:2011:10.1103/PhysRevD.84.043507,
author = {Feeney, SM and Johnson, MC and Mortlock, DJ and Peiris, HV},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.84.043507},
journal = {Physical Review D},
title = {First observational tests of eternal inflation: Analysis methods and WMAP 7-year},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.043507},
volume = {84},
year = {2011}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - In the picture of eternal inflation, our observable universe resides inside a single bubble nucleated from an inflating false vacuum. Many of the theories giving rise to eternal inflation predict that we have causal access to collisions with other bubble universes, providing an opportunity to confront these theories with observation. We present the results from the first observational search for the effects of bubble collisions, using cosmic microwave background data from the WMAP satellite. Our search targets a generic set of properties associated with a bubble-collision spacetime, which we describe in detail. We use a modular algorithm that is designed to avoid a posteriori selection effects, automatically picking out the most promising signals, performing a search for causal boundaries, and conducting a full Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection analysis. We outline each component of this algorithm, describing its response to simulated CMB skies with and without bubble collisions. Comparing the results for simulated bubble collisions to the results from an analysis of the WMAP 7-year data, we rule out bubble collisions over a range of parameter space. Our model selection results based on WMAP 7-year data do not warrant augmenting Λ CDM with bubble collisions. Data from the Planck satellite can be used to more definitively test the bubble-collision hypothesis.
AU  - Feeney,SM
AU  - Johnson,MC
AU  - Mortlock,DJ
AU  - Peiris,HV
DO  - 10.1103/PhysRevD.84.043507
PY  - 2011///
SN  - 2470-0010
TI  - First observational tests of eternal inflation: Analysis methods and WMAP 7-year
T2  - Physical Review D
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.043507
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000293620100003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/73491
VL  - 84
ER  -
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