Statistical isotropy of CMB anisotropy from WMAP

Abstract

The statistical expectation values of the temperature fluctuations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) are assumed to be preserved under rotations of the sky. We investigate the statistical isotropy of the CMB anisotropy maps recently measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) using bipolar spherical harmonic power spectrum proposed in Hajian & Souradeep 2003. The Bipolar Power Spectrum (BiPS) is estimated for the full sky CMB anisotropy maps of the first year WMAP data. The method allows us to isolate regions in multipole space and study each region independently. This search shows no evidence for violation of statistical isotropy in the first-year WMAP data on angular scales larger than that corresponding to l ≈ 60 .