Band-power reconstruction of the primordial fluctuation spectrum by the maximum likelihood reconstruction method

Abstract

The primordial curvature fluctuation spectrum is reconstructed by the maximum likelihood reconstruction method using the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy. We apply the covariance matrix analysis and decompose the reconstructed spectrum into statistically independent band-powers. The prominent peak off a simple power-law spectrum found in our previous analysis turn out to be a $3.3σ$ deviation. From the statistics of primordial spectra reconstructed from mock observations, the probability that a primordial spectrum including such excess is realized in a power-law model is estimated to be about 2%.

9 pages