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NASA NTRS2001

Observing the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: A Unique Window on the Early Universe

The cosmic microwave background radiation is the remnant heat from the Big Bang. It provides us with a unique probe of conditions in the early universe, long before any organized structures had yet formed. The anisotropy in the radiation's brightness yields important clues about primordial structure and additionally provides a wealth of information about the physics,of the early universe. Within the framework of inflationary dark matter models observations of the anisotropy on sub-degree angular scales will reveal the signatures of acoustic oscillations of the photon-baryon fluid at a redshift of approx. 1100. The validity of inflationary models will be tested and, if agreement is found, accurate values for most of the key cosmological parameters will result. If disagreement is found, we will need to rethink our basic ideas about the physics of the early universe. I will present an overview of the physical processes at work in forming the anisotropy and discuss what we have already learned from current observations. I will conclude with a brief overview of the recently launched Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) mission which will observe the anisotropy over the full sky with 0.21 degree angular resolution. At the time of this meeting, MAP will have just arrived at the L2 Lagrange point, marking the start of its observing campaign. The MAP hardware is being produced by Goddard in partnership with Princeton University.

Hinshaw, Gary↗

NASA NTRS1995

Anisotropic Structure of Rotating Homogeneous Turbulence at High Reynolds Numbers

Large eddy simulation is used to investigate the development of anisotropies and the evolution towards a quasi two-dimensional state in rotating homogeneous turbulence at high Reynolds number. The present study demonstrates the existence of two transitions in the development of anisotropy. The first transition marks the onset of anisotropy and occurs when a macro-Rossby number (based on a longitudinal integral lengthscale) has decreased to near unity while the second transition occurs when a micro-Rossby number (defined in this work as the ratio of the rms fluctuating vorticity to background vorticity) has decreased to unity. The anisotropy marked by the first transition corresponds to a reduction in dimensionality while the second transition corresponds to a polarization of the flow, i.e., relative dominance of the velocity components in the plane normal to the rotation axis. Polarization is reflected by emergence of anisotropy measures based on the two-dimensional component of the turbulence. Investigation of the vorticity structure shows that the second transition is also characterized by an increasing tendency for alignment between the fluctuating vorticity vector and the background angular velocity vector with a preference for corrotative vorticity.

Cambon, Claude↗

NASA NTRS1973

Cyclotron resonance wave amplification in the magnetosphere and energetic particle stability

Detailed electron distribution measurements in the outer magnetosphere now available indicate that the energetic electron anisotropy may be very energy dependent, there being positive anisotropies near the magnetic equator for low-energy particles and negative anisotropies in this region for high-energy particles. Previous wave growth calculations assuming the energetic particle anisotropy to be independent of energy are inaccurate at high energies. The net one-hop whistler mode wave amplification is calculated as a function of frequency for a measured electron distribution at L = 7 for a number of assumed equatorial plasma densities. It is found that an increase in cold plasma density results in a change from a net wave damping to significant wave amplification.

Lucas, C.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Polarized electromagnetic response of the moon

The strong anisotropy in Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Magnetometer (LSM) signals resulting from electromagnetic induction in the moon, forced by fluctuations of the interplanetary magnetic field, is shown to result from intense polarization of the induced field. Arguments are given to show that the anisotropy cannot be explained wholly by asymmetric lunar induction in the presence of the diamagnetic cavity, but must be related to a regional influence. The weaker Apollo 12 anisotropy may also be associated with a regional influence. The site of Apollo 15 LSM at the edge of the Imbrium Basin suggests a preliminary model for calculations based on the possibility that Imbrium and perhaps Serenitatis are sources of the regional effect. Lastly, since the very low frequency induction seems free of the anisotropy, our earlier estimate of deep conductivity remains unchanged.

Sonett, C. P.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Aether drift and the isotropy of the universe

An experiment is proposed which will detect and map the large-angular-scale anisotropies in the 3 deg K primordial black-body radiation with a sensitivity of .0002 deg K and an angular resolution of about 10 deg . It will detect the motion of the earth with respect to the distant matter of the Universe ("Aether Drift"), and will probe the homogeneity and isotropy of the Universe (the "Cosmological Principle"). The experiment will use two Dicke radiometers, one at 33 GHz to detect the cosmic anisotropy, and one at 54 GHz to detect anisotropies in the residual oxygen above the detectors. An upper hatch for the NASA-AMES Earth Survey Aircraft (U-2) is being modified to accept the dual-radiometer system. A few hours of observation should be sufficient to detect an anisotropy.

Muller, R. A.↗

NASA NTRS1977

The streaming of 1.3 - 2.3 MeV cosmic-ray protons during periods between prompt solar particle events

The anisotropy of 1.3 to 2.3 MeV protons in interplanetary space was measured using the Caltech electron/isotope spectrometer aboard IMP-7 for 317 6 hour periods from 72/273 to 74/2. Periods dominated by prompt solar particle events are not included. The convective and diffusive anisotropies were determined from the observed anisotropy using concurrent solar wind speed measurements and observed energy spectra. The diffusive flow of particles was found to be typically toward the sun, indicating a positive radial gradient in the particle density. This anisotropy was inconsistent with previously proposed sources of low energy proton increases seen at 1 AU which involve continual solar acceleration. The typical properties of this new component of low-energy cosmic rays were determined for this period which is near solar minimum.

Marshall, F. E.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Aether Drift and the isotropy of the universe: A measurement of anisotropes in the primordial black-body radiation

Large-angular-scale anisotropies in the 3 K primordial black-body radiation were detected and mapped with a sensitivity of 2 x to the minus 4 power K and an angular resolution of about 10 deg. The motion of the Earth with respect to the distant matter of the Universe ("Aether Drift") was measured and the homogeneity and isotropy of the Universe (the "Cosmological Principle") was probed. The experiment uses two Dicke radiometers, one at 33 GHz to detect the cosmic anisotropy, and one at 54 GHz to detect anisotropies in the residual oxygen above the detectors. The system was installed in the NASA-Ames Earth survey aircraft (U-2), and operated successfully in a series of flights in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Data taking and analysis to measure the anisotropy were successful.

Smoot, G. F.↗

NASA NTRS1981

The cosmic microwave background radiation

Because angular anisotropies and spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background radiation are judged to be inevitable at some level, in a realistic cosmological model, the evidence for spectral distortions and its theoretical implications are described. The evidence for anisotropy is then discussed, and theoretical predictions of radiation anisotropy are summarized and compared with the data available. It is found that spectral distortions at the 3-sigma level near the peak of the blackbody spectrum, although inconsistent with the predicted distortions due to Compton scattering in the early universe, are elegantly interpreted in terms of radiation from an early, pregalactic generation of massive stars which had been thermalized by a modest amount of dust at high redshift. The quadrupole anisotropy at the 4-sigma level is most simply interpreted in terms of the large-scale structure of the universe.

Silk, J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Impact experiments in viscous fluid media

Available phase and group velocity data are inverted by a procedure which includes the effects of transverse anisotropy, anelastic dispersion, sphericity, and gravity. The resulting models, for average Earth, average ocean, and oceanic regions divided according to the age of the ocean floor, are quite different from previous results which ignore the above effects. The models show a low-veocity zone with age dependent anisotropy and velocities higher than derived in previous surface wave studied. The correspondence between the anisotropy variation with age and a physical model based on flow aligned olivine is suggestive. For most of the Earth SHSV in the vicinity of the low-velocity zone. Near the East Pacific Rise, however, SVSH at depth, consistent with ascending flow. Anisotropy is as important as temperature in causing radial and lateral variations in velocity. The models have a high velocity nearly isotropic layer at the top of the mantle that thickens with age. This layer defines the LID, or seismic lithosphere. In the Pacific, the LID thickens with age to a maximum thickness of about 50 km. This thickness is comparable to the thickness of the elastic lithosphere. The LID thickness is thinner than derived using isotropic or pseudo-isotropic procedures A new model for Average Earth is obtained which includes a thin LID. This model extends the fit of a P.R.E.M. type model to shorter period surface waves.

Greeley, R.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Mapping convection in the mantle

Long-period (100-250 sec.) Love and Rayleigh waves are used to map heterogeneity and azimuthal anisotropy in the upper mantle. Spherical harmonic descriptions of anisotropy up to l = m = 3 and 2 theta are derived. Azimuthal anisotropy obtains values as high as 1.5 percent. There is good correlation of fast Rayleigh wave directions with upper mantle return flow directions derived from kinematic considerations. This is consistent with a-axis of olivine being aligned in the flow direction. The main differences between the flow models and the Rayleigh wave azimuthal variation maps occur in the vicinity of hotspots. The correlation of azimuthal anisotropy with upper mantle return flow directions, rather than with plate directions, suggests that part of the return flow is in the upper mantle and this, in turn, implies a low viscosity channel.

Tanimoto, T.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Study of spectral exponent on quiet and disturbed days

The spectral exponents of the diurnal and semidiurnal anisotropies are studied on quiet and disturbed days for a period from 1964 to 75. It has been observed for the diurnal anisotropy that the spectral exponent for quiet days is 0.0 from 1964 to 70, however during 1971 and onwards its value is found different from zero and is -0.4; for disturbed days the spectral exponent is observed to be 0.0 from 1964 to 75 with an exception of the year 1966. Further, it has been observed for the semi-diurnal anisotropy that the best value for the spectral exponent on quiet days being + 0.6 from 1964 to 74; however on disturbed days the value of spectral exponent is sometimes negative or positive but different from zero. It was derived from the present investigation that superimposed on the corotational anisotropy, expected from a balance between outward radial convection and inward field aligned diffusion, there is an additional component operating during the period under consideration.

Kumar, S.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Diurnal variation of galactic cosmic ray intensity on quiet days

A detailed study of the diurnal variation on long term basis was performed on geomagnetically quiet days using the experimental data of the cosmic ray intensity from the worldwide neutron monitoring stations. During the period when the polarity of the solar magnetic field in the Northern Hemisphere of the sun is negative the phase and amplitude of the diurnal anisotropy on quiet days was observed to remain almost constant. When the polarity of solar magnetic field in the Northern Hemisphere changes from negative to positive, a shift in the phase of the diurnal anisotropy on quiet days towards earlier hours is observed and the shift is found to be maximum during minimum solar activity periods 1953-54 and 1975-76. When the polarity of solar magnetic field changes from positive to negative in the Northern Hemisphere of the Sun the phase of the diurnal anisotropy on quiet days recovers to its usual direction of corotational anisotropy and is observed to remain almost constant till the polarity of the solar magnetic field does not change.

Kumar, S.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Effect of the Great Attractor on the cosmic microwave background radiation

A map is presented of the anisotropy Delta T/T in cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature of our region of the universe as viewed by a distant observer, predicted on the basis of the gravitational potential field. This field is calculated in the vicinity of the Local Group of galaxies from the observed peculiar velocities of galaxies under the assumption that the peculiar motions are induced by gravity. If the cosmological density parameter Omega is one, the gravitational potential field of the Great Attractor and surrounding regions produces a maximum Sachs-Wolfe anisotropy of Delta T/T = (1.7 + or - 0.3) x 10 to the -5th on an angular scale of 1 deg. Doppler and adiabatic contributions to this anisotropy are expected to be somewhat larger. If similar fluctuations in the gravitational potential are present elsewhere in the universe, the anisotropy present when the CMB was last scattered should be visible from the earth and should be detectable in current experiments.

Bertschinger, Edmund↗

NASA NTRS1990

Early results from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)

The Cosmic Background Explorer, launched 18 Nov. 1989, has nearly completed its first full mapping of the sky with all three of its instruments: A Far Infrared Absolute Spectrometer (FIRAS) covering 0.1 to 10 mm, a set of Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) operating at 3.3, 5.7, and 9.6 mm, and a diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) spanning 1 to 300 microns in ten bands. A preliminary map of the sky derived from DIRBE data is presented. Initial cosmological implications include: a limit on the comptonization parameter of 0.001, on the chemical potential parameter of 0.01, a strong limit on the existence of a hot smooth intergalactic medium, and a confirmation that the dipole anisotropy has the spectrum expected from a Doppler shift of a blackbody. There are no significant anisotropies in the microwave sky detected, other than from our own galaxy and a cos theta dipole anisotropy whose amplitude and direction agree with previous data. At shorter wavelengths, the sky spectrum and anisotropies are dominated by emission from local sources of emission within our Galaxy and Solar System. Preliminary comparison of IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) and DRIBE sky brightnesses toward the ecliptic poles shows the IRAS values to be significantly higher than found by DRIBE at 100 microns. The presence of gain and zero point errors in the IRAS total brightness data is suggested. The spacecraft, instrument designs, and data reduction methods are described.

Mather, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1990

An experimental study of the effects of rapid rotation on turbulence

Experiments, large eddy simulations and direct numerical simulations all show that rapid rotation has a striking effect on homogeneous nearly isotropic turbulence. The cascade process is effectively inhibited by rotation, and thus dissipation is greatly reduced. Some attempts have been made to incorporate this effect in turbulence models. Numerical simulation further showed the somewhat surprising result that anisotropic homogeneous turbulence subjected to rotation tended towards an isotropic state; however, the residual anisotropy was not zero. Reynolds (1989) performed a detailed analysis using Rapid Distortion Theory (RDT) and showed that a reduction in the anisotropy is indeed expected and if the anisotropy is produced by irrotational strain then the anisotropy tensor b(sub ij) is asymptotically driven to half its initial value. Our objective is to extend the work of the experiments mentioned above to lower turbulent Rossby numbers and to confirm some of the results obtained by Reynolds (1989) for anisotropic turbulence.

Veeravalli, S. V.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Constraints on the power spectrum of the primordial density field from large-scale data - Microwave background and predictions of inflation

It is shown here that, by using galaxy catalog correlation data as input, measurements of microwave background radiation (MBR) anisotropies should soon be able to test two of the inflationary scenario's most basic predictions: (1) that the primordial density fluctuations produced were scale-invariant and (2) that the universe is flat. They should also be able to detect anisotropies of large-scale structure formed by gravitational evolution of density fluctuations present at the last scattering epoch. Computations of MBR anisotropies corresponding to the minimum of the large-scale variance of the MBR anisotropy are presented which favor an open universe with P(k) significantly different from the Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum predicted by most inflationary models.

Kashlinsky, A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Dipole and quadrupole tests of the isotropy of gamma-ray burst locations

Dipole and quadrupole tests of the isotropy of locations on the sphere are discussed. The statistics (cos theta), the dipole moment to the Galactic center, and mean (sin-squared b - 1/3), the quadrupole moment about the Galactic plane, can be used to search for significant anisotropies in galactic coordinates. Such coordinate-system-based tests are the most powerful tests of dipole and quadrupole anisotropies in the particular coordinate system. Two statistics which have not been previously applied to gamma-ray burst data are described. The Rayleigh-Watson statistic measures the size of the dipole moment of the locations and the Bingham statistic measures the deviation of the eigenvalues of a quadrupole-like matrix from the values expected for isotropy. Tests based upon these two statistics search for dipole and quadrupole moments in spherical location data in a coordinate-system-independent, and thus model-independent, manner. They can detect an anisotropy in any direction and yield an analytic statistical significance to any detected anisotropy. The statistical tests are demonstrated herein using a variety of data sets.

Briggs, Michael S.↗

NASA NTRS1994

An anisotropic extension of Bodner's model of viscoplasticity: Model development

An anisotropic viscoplasticity model is developed as an extension of the well known Bodner model. The extension is made by replacing the effective stress of the isotropic Bodner model by one involving invariants for transverse isotropy. The resulting model retains the simplicity of Bodner's in the ease with which the material constants are determined experimentally. It allows a representation of strong initial anisotropy yet is based on the scalar state variable under the assertion that induced anisotropy is negligible relative to the strong initial anisotropy. Temperature dependence is taken as in the original Bodner theory. Account is made of fiber volume fraction through nonlinear rules of mixture applied to the stress history and anisotropy parameters. Focus is on the theoretical development of the model, however, application to a W/Cu composite is in progress and will be reported as a sequel to this report.

Robinson, David N.↗