Observing the Multiverse with Cosmic Wakes
OObserving the Multiverse with Cosmic Wakes
Matthew Kleban , Thomas S. Levi , Kris Sigurdson Center for Cosmology and Particle PhysicsNew York UniversityNew York, NY 10003, USA Department of Physics and AstronomyUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada
Current theories of the origin of the Universe, including string theory, predict theexistence of a multiverse containing many bubble universes. These bubble universes willgenerically collide, and collisions with ours produce cosmic wakes that enter our Hub-ble volume, appear as unusually symmetric disks in the cosmic microwave background(CMB) [1] and disturb large scale structure (LSS). There is preliminary observationalevidence consistent with one or more of these disturbances on our sky [2]. However,other sources can produce similar features in the CMB temperature map and so ad-ditional signals are needed to verify their extra-universal origin. Here we find, for thefirst time, the detailed three-dimensional shape and CMB temperature and polariza-tion signals of the cosmic wake of a bubble collision in the early universe consistentwith current observations [3]. The predicted polarization pattern has distinctive fea-tures that when correlated with the corresponding temperature pattern are a uniqueand striking signal of a bubble collision. These features represent the first verifiableprediction of the multiverse paradigm and might be detected by current experimentssuch as Planck [4] and future CMB polarization missions. A detection of a bubblecollision would confirm the existence of the Multiverse, provide compelling evidence forthe string theory landscape, and sharpen our picture of the Universe and its origins. a r X i v : . [ a s t r o - ph . C O ] S e p Introduction
The possibility of observing cosmic bubble collisions has recently received a considerableamount of attention (see, e.g., [5] for a recent review). Such collisions are a genericprediction of multiple-vacua models like the string theory landscape, and an observationof one would fundamentally alter our understanding of the cosmos at large scales. Inthese models the observable part of the Universe is contained within a bubble thatformed as a result of a first-order phase transition from a parent false vacuum. Collisionswith other such bubbles produces a special wave, that we term a cosmic wake , thatpropagates into our bubble and affects the spacetime region to the causal future of thecollision (see Fig. 1).To a remarkable extent these dramatic events can be analyzed analytically and ina model-independent fashion. In this work we determine the precise pattern of temper-ature and polarization of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photons induced by acosmic wake using the full solution to the cosmological Einstein-Boltzmann equations.The results, while consistent with a previous analytic approximation [6], are remark-able: collisions can produce a unique and highly characteristic polarization signal—a“double peak” in the magnitude of the polarization as a function of angle. This dou-ble peak, and more generally the large-scale azimuthally symmetric polarization andtemperature pattern produced by cosmic bubble collisions, serves as a true smokinggun for their detection. Moreover, in an interesting regime of parameters this vitalcorroborating signal in CMB polarization can be as easy or potentially even easier todetect than the signal in CMB temperature.Our results also determine the evolution of density and velocity perturbations afterdecoupling, which opens the door for future work quantifying the effect of the cosmicwake on large scale structures.
While the detailed physics of cosmic bubble collisions depends on high-energy micro-physics, to a surprising extent the physics relevant to the late-time cosmic wake thataffects observables such as the CMB radiation and Large Scale Structure (LSS) appearsto depend on only a few simple parameters. This occurs because the collision betweentwo bubbles preserves much of the symmetry inherited from bubble nucleation events,and the inflationary period in our Universe subsequent to any collision rapidly erasesall but a few characteristic features.In a broad class of microphysical models there are only four parameters relevant tothe effects of a collision on the observable Universe at the end of inflation. Of these, one1 B end of inflationstart of inflation domain wall interior of cosmic wake exterior of cosmic wake(spacetime region not affected by collision) other bubble parent false vacuum parent false vacuum our bubble Earth today parent false vacuum t x BBC initial cond. collision
Figure 1 . Spacetime conformal diagram of a cosmic bubble collision. Each point represents atwo-dimensional hyperbolic slice of space with a radius of curvature that depends on positionwithin the diagram. The physics in regions A, B, and C is determined by the conditions onthe surface labelled “initial cond.” inside the cosmic wake and by the conditions outside thecosmic wake. To a good approximation, the physics in regions B and C depends only on theleft-moving part of the inflaton perturbation. probes the underlying microphysics, while the others reflect the initial conditions (theposition and time of the nucleation of the colliding bubble relative to ours). These fourparameters determine the direction, distance to, and strength of the collision-inducedcosmic wake in our Hubble volume, and therefore the location, size, and intensity ofthe affected disc in the CMB sky.Because the primordial plasma supports acoustic waves, the cosmic wake can prop-agate into our Hubble volume. The most dramatic effect is the appearance of two sharppeaks in the magnitude of E-mode polarization as a function of radius: there is a doubleconcentric ring of strongly polarized light outlining the affected disk in the CMB sky.These peaks are a position-space manifestation of the acoustic physics responsible forthe more familiar peaks observed in the angular temperature power spectrum of theCMB.
We first calculate the expected curvature perturbations resulting from cosmic bubblecollisions that persist after a period of slow-roll inflation. These perturbations subse-quently evolve into the cosmic wake.The spacetime metric and scalar-field configuration describing the collision of twoColeman-de Luccia thin-wall bubbles expanding in a parent false vacuum preserves an2 O (2 ,
1) group of isometries [7–10]. In suitable coordinates the collision takes place atone instant of time everywhere along a hyperbolic surface H in space, and the effectsof the collision causally influence the spacetime region to the future of the surface atthat instant.During inflation the background metric describes, up to slow-roll corrections, anapproximate de Sitter spacetime with Hubble constant H I and may be written in theform ds = − (1 + H I t ) − dt + (1 + H I t ) dx + t d H , where d H = dr + sinh rdϕ isthe metric on the surface H . Since the collision preserves the SO (2 ,
1) symmetry itseffects are uniform on the H .However, after N e -folds of inflation the coordinate H I t ∝ e N becomes expo-nentially big and the hyperbolic curvature small. Current constraints indicate that R > ∼ c/H , or equivalently √ Ω k = ( R H /c ) − < ∼ .
1, where R is the radius ofcurvature of the Universe today and Ω k is the effective curvature density [3], so it isa good approximation to ignore the negative spatial curvature and treat the hyper-bolic surface H as planar (which we do for the remainder of this work). We alsoapproximate the inflationary spacetime as de Sitter space. Curvature and higher-orderslow-roll effects induce small corrections to the result calculated here. Finally, we usethe thin-wall approximation for the collision bubble—that is, we treat the region af-fected by the collision as having a sharp boundary. Taking into account finite thicknesswill have the effect of smearing out very small scale features in the signal, and sufficientsmearing would replace the double peak with a single peak. The extent to which thishappens is a model-dependent question and could provide further details about themicrophysics—specifically, if a distinct double peak is observed it indicates that theratio of the Hubble scale during inflation H I to the Hubble scale of the parent falsevacuum H F satisfies ( H I /H F ) < ∼ − [11].In the planar approximation and including linear perturbations in conformal New-tonian gauge, the metric takes the form ds = ( H I τ ) − (cid:2) − (1 + 2Φ) dτ + (1 − dx + dy + dz ) (cid:3) , (2.1)where H I is the Hubble parameter during inflation, τ < (cid:126)x = 0,and Φ and Ψ are the Newtonian potentials (which are equal during inflation). Inthe approximation that the collision surface is planar, the region of spacetime affectedby the collision satisfies x > − τ + x c for some constant x c that depends on whenthe collision occurred. We focus on collisions with a region of causal influence thatintersects the visible part of the surface of last scattering because these have the bestpotential for detection [1, 6, 12]; since the Earth is at x = 0 and H I | τ | (cid:28) H I | x c | (cid:28)
1. 3iven that slow-roll inflation took place, pre-inflationary inhomogeneities becamesmall at some time early in inflation. From that time on we may evolve perturbationsusing standard linear cosmological perturbation theory [13]. To lowest order in theslow-roll parameters, gauge-invariant perturbations to the inflaton field φ = φ + δφ obey the equation of motion of a free scalar in de Sitter space [13] ∂ τ δφ + 2 H ∂ τ δφ − ∇ δφ + O ( (cid:15), η ) = 0 , (2.2)where H ( τ ) = − /τ + O ( (cid:15), η ) is the conformal Hubble constant, and (cid:15), η are thestandard slow-roll parameters. We neglect terms of O ( (cid:15), η ) and work at zeroth orderin the slow roll expansion.Because the collision perturbation is constant on the nearly-planar surface thegeneral solution to (2.2) can be written in closed form [1] δφ ( τ, x ) = ˜ g ( τ + x ) − τ ˜ g (cid:48) ( τ + x ) + ˜ f ( τ − x ) − τ ˜ f (cid:48) ( τ − x ) , (2.3)where ˜ f and ˜ g are arbitrary functions of one variable (and ˜ f (cid:48) and ˜ g (cid:48) their derivativeswith respect to their argument). To proceed further we need the initial perturbation δφ produced by the bubble collision event. Without a specific model for the underlyingmicrophysics this cannot be computed but, to a good approximation, the post-inflationpredictions of any such model can be characterized by four parameters.Consider the region near the edge of the collision lightcone x = − τ i + x c at sometime τ i ∼ − H − I near the beginning of inflation when linear perturbation theory isvalid (labelled “initial cond.” in Fig. 1). Since the perturbation δφ is non-zero only for x > − τ i + x c , from (2.3) we must have ˜ g ( τ + x − x c ) = g ( τ + x − x c )Θ( τ + x − x c ) and˜ f ( τ − x ) = f ( − τ + x − x c +2 τ i )Θ( − τ + x − x c +2 τ i ), where Θ is the Heaviside step functionand f, g are functions of one variable. The ˜ f terms in (2.3) are rightmoving excitations.By the end of inflation H I | τ e | (cid:28)
1, they are non-zero only for x − x c > − τ i ∼ H − I but, as explained above, we are only interested in | x − x c | (cid:28) H − I and these terms arenot relevant for cosmological observables ( c.f. Fig. 1, specifically regions B and C).At the end of inflation, the inflaton perturbation is [11] δφ ( τ e , x ) ≈ g ( x − x c )Θ( x − x c ) = M ∞ (cid:88) n =0 { α n H nI ( x − x c ) n } Θ( x − x c ) , (2.4)where we have dropped the term in (2.3) proportional to τ e (cid:28) H − I , and expanded g in terms of dimensionless coefficients α n and a constant M with dimensions of mass.The model-dependent initial conditions δφ ( τ i , x ) and δ ˙ φ ( τ i , x ) determine the coef-ficients α n . As is clear from (2.3), any regular perturbation δφ gives α = 0. For an O (1) perturbation at an early time τ i ∼ H − I one generically expects the dimensionless4oefficients α n < ∼ n >
0. But as we are only interested in the region H I | x − x c | (cid:28) α n , the higher terms in (2.4) will be negligible. Thus, by theend of inflation, the leading perturbation reduces to just the linear term [1, 11] δφ = M α ( x − x c )Θ( x − x c ) . (2.5)This expression contains two parameters ( M α and x c ). We have chosen coordinatesso that the x direction is the axis of symmetry of the collision; i.e. there are two anglesparametrizing the direction towards center of the collision. As mentioned above, thesefour parameters fully characterize the effects on the CMB of a generic collision. The inflaton perturbation δφ determines the conformal Newtonian gauge gravitationalpotential perturbation Φ. Using the Einstein and scalar equations we can show (2.5)leads to a potential perturbationΦ = − V (cid:48) g ( τ + x )Θ( τ + x ) ≈ − V (cid:48) M α x Θ( x ) , (2.6)where V (cid:48) = ∂V ( φ ) /∂φ is the slope of the inflationary potential.The initial conditions for cosmology after inflation are best expressed in termsof the comoving curvature perturbation ζ that is conserved on super-Horizon scales[13, 14]. We find ζ = 23 H − ∂ Φ /∂τ + Φ1 + w + Φ = − M α V (cid:48) (cid:18) x w + τ + x (cid:19) Θ( τ + x ) ≈ λx Θ( x ) , (2.7)where w (cid:39) − λ = − α M V (cid:48) (2 + w ) / (3 +3 w ) ∼ α M V /V (cid:48) is a constant that sets the amplitude of late-time effects. The final,approximate equality is valid late in the inflationary epoch.
Using the superhorizon curvature perturbation ζ i near the end of inflation and a setof linear transfer functions ˜∆ X the perturbed distribution of an observable X at latertimes is ∆ X ( x , ˆ n, τ ) = (cid:90) d k e i k · x ˜∆ X ( k = | k | , ˆ n, τ ) ζ i ( k ) , (3.1)where ∆ X ( x , ˆ n, τ ) is the local value of an observable X (e.g. δT /T for the photondistribution) at position x , and time τ in the direction ˆ n on the sky, and k is the5omoving wave-vector. Angular moments of ∆ X ( x , ˆ n, τ ) determine, for example, thedensity and velocity as a function of position, while ∆ X (0 , ˆ n, τ ) is the angular anisotropyat the location of the Earth.The transfer functions encaspulate the full evolution of the coupled multi-componentfluid and gravitational system and to linear order depend only on the backgroundcosmology—hence they are independent of the collision perturbation. For the cosmo-logical background we choose best-fit values from the 7-year data release of WMAP[3]. We compute the transfer functions using a customized version of CAMB [15],and our own code to numerically evaluate the Fourier transform in (3.1) and extractobservables. In the Sachs-Wolfe approximation [16], the CMB temperature anisotropy is determinedby the curvature perturbation at decoupling: δT ( θ, φ ) /T ∝ ζ ( (cid:126)x, τ dc ), where (cid:126)x = D dc is the distance to the last scattering surface and the angular coordinates are chosenso that x = D dc cos θ . In this approximation the collision perturbation (2.7) gives riseto a very simple temperature perturbation: δT /T ∝ Θ( θ c − θ ) (cos θ − cos θ c ), where θ c = cos − x c /D dc is the angular radius of the spot [1, 6].However, the perturbation (2.7) is constant only on super-horizon scales after theend of inflation. To take into account the full evolution between reheating and decou-pling, we instead use (3.1). The results are presented in Fig. 2, with θ = 0 pointingalong the x -axis (towards the collision) and | δT /T | normalized to 10 − at the center ofthe spot. We present a range of x c on the figure: the y -axis is the approximate angularradius of the spot θ c ≈ cos − x c /D dc , and the x -axis is the angle from the spot center.For all x c , we find the temperature perturbation has the largest magnitude at thecenter of the spot θ = 0, decreases linearly in cos θ , and then smoothly transitions toa constant at θ = θ c (with no edge or discontinuity). The width in θ of the transitionregion is roughly equal to the angular separation between the two peaks in polarizationdiscussed below. These results are fully consistent with the approximate analytic resultsof [1, 6]. Whether the spot is hot or cold encodes microphysics of the inflaton and thecollision bubble, see [1]. The CMB is linearly polarized due to Thomson scattering of CMB photons off freeelectrons [17, 18]. This scattering occurs primarily at redshifts around decoupling( z dc ∼ z re ∼ igure 2 . Plot of δT /T for all possible spot angular radii from θ c = 5 ◦ to 90 ◦ . The spotsare normalized so that the | δT /T | = 10 − at the center of the spot. Θ (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:200) Q (cid:72) Θ (cid:76)(cid:200) (cid:72) a (cid:76) Θ (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:200) Q (cid:72) Θ (cid:76)(cid:200) (cid:72) b (cid:76)
59 60 61 62 Θ (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:180) (cid:45) (cid:200) Q (cid:72) Θ (cid:76)(cid:200) (cid:72) c (cid:76) Figure 3 . Polarization | Q ( θ ) | for (a): a spot with angular radius θ c ≈ ◦ , and (b): aspot with angular radius θ c ≈ ◦ . Note the double peak in (b), with the indicated regionmagnified in (c). The spots are normalized so that | δT /T | = 10 − at the center. but there is significant uncertainty in the reionization history of the Universe. However,our key results are not very sensitive to different reionization models [6], and we choosea simple model of single reionization as our fiducial case [3].The polarization of a transverse electromagnetic wave with intensity tensor I ij canbe characterized by the Stokes parameters Q and U : Q = ( I − I ) / , U = I / . (3.2)Choosing coordinates so that the collision spot is centered on θ = 0 guarantees that7 igure 4 . Density plot of the polarization | Q ( θ ) | for spot radii from θ c = 5 ◦ to 90 ◦ . The plotis normalized such that each spot has a temperature contrast | δT /T | = 10 − in the center. the Stokes parameter U = 0 ( i.e. the polarization is purely E -mode, as expected fora scalar perturbation). The polarization pattern is radial (azimuthal) for a cold (hot)spot with Q > ( < ) 0. For a discussion of CMB polarization in general see [20].Thanks to the azimuthal symmetry, we can parametrize the CMB polarization dueto a single collision by Q = Q ( θ ) alone. However Q ( θ ) differs qualitatively for small( θ c < ∼ ◦ ) and large spots. We display two cases in Fig. 3; θ c ≈ ◦ and θ c ≈ ◦ .The large spot has a distinctive “double peak” structure; two rings of sharply enhancedpolarization concentric with the edge θ = θ c of the affected disk in the temperaturemap. This structure is characteristic of bubble collisions and appears for any spot with θ c > ∼ ◦ .In Fig. 4 we display the results for all collisions with 5 ◦ < θ c < ◦ . The x -axis is θ c , the y -axis is | Q ( θ ) | . The double peak in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 is a very striking feature, but the physics that givesrise to it is simple. At the end of inflation, the perturbation (2.6) in the Newtonianpotential is Φ ∼ x Θ( x ). Between the end of inflation and decoupling, a linear-in- x perturbation (such as Φ = Cx ) remains so, because the evolution equations forcosmological perturbations are all second order in spatial derivatives. By contrast, the8 dc rsh x E dg e o f C o s m i c W a k e C M B T e m p e r a t u r e S p o t Interior of Cosmic Wake
Figure 5 . The last scattering surface and the cosmic wake, showing the region of the CMBtemperature sky affected by the collision and illustrating the geometric origin of the doublepeak separation angle. “kink” at x = 0 spreads at the sound-speed c s (cid:46) c/ √ x = 0 until matter-radiationequality. After equality the speed of sound is effectively zero and there is no furtherspreading. However at the edge of the affected region at any time, the first derivativeof the perturbation is still close to discontinuous.An electron with a last scattering sphere that intersects one of the edges of thisregion will scatter a relatively large amount of polarized light, because the quadrupolemoment is sensitive to the second derivative of the temperature distribution. Thetwo edges of the region at decoupling should be separated by twice the sound horizon2 r sh ∼
306 Mpc, or r sh /D dc ≈ . θ s ≈ cos − ( x c − r sh ) /D dc − cos − ( x c + r sh ) /D dc ,which agrees well with our numerical results. For θ c ≈ ◦ this width is θ s ≈ θ sh = 1 . ◦ .For smaller disks, θ s is larger, and for θ c < ∼ ◦ the inner peak disappears entirely. After matter-radiation equality, the sound speed of perturbations is approximatelyzero and the edge of the cosmic wake should remain at fixed x . Due to the growth ofperturbations during matter domination, the amplitude of the perturbation at the edgeof the wake today should be amplified by roughly a factor of z dc ∼ Cxθ ( x ) corresponds to a δ -function density perturbation at x = 0, one expects a planar sheet of over- or under-density (for hot or cold spots in the CMB, respectively) centered at x ≈ D dc cos θ c ,with a thickness set roughly by the sound horizon r sh at equality.9 i m e Figure 6 . Evolution of the cold dark matter density contrast δ cdm in conformal Newtoniangauge, from redshift z = 10 ,
000 to the present. The left panel shows the continuous evolution,while the right panel shows two snapshots at z = 10 ,
000 (top) and z = 0 (bottom). Thecosmic wake is normalized so that δT /T = − − (a cold spot) at the center of an affecteddisk in the CMB with angular radius θ c ≈ ◦ . These expectations are confirmed numerically in Fig. 6, where we display the colddark matter density contrast in conformal Newtonian gauge (the baryon density lookssimilar). The presence of such a mass sheet could lead to signatures in large scale struc-ture or lensing surveys which—combined with CMB data—could further corroboratethe discovery of a bubble collision. We leave this investigation to future work [21].
In this section we estimate the degree of detectability of the polarization signal for spotsof varying size and brightness and for a selection of current and future experiments.Both the temperature and polarization signals are circularly symmetric. We orient ourcoordinates such that the center of the spot is at the pole θ = 0; a coordinate rotationcan be used to center the spot anywhere else.To get an estimate of the detectability threshold we will fit to a one parametermodel (which we label A ) for the amplitude of the temperature spot at its center.We analyze the fit for temperature (T) alone, E-mode polarization (E) alone, andE-mode polarization combined with information from the temperature map and cross-correlation. We work in l -space where the noise covariance matrix is diagonal. Thecircular symmetry allows us to integrate over the azimuthal angle ϕ , which in l -spacemeans the a T,El,m multipoles do not contribute for m (cid:54) = 0.10or each estimate we generate a full sky of CMB fluctuations in T and E con-sistent with WMAP-7 concordance parameters [3] as well as a noise realization foreach detector up to l max = 2000. We then add a collision spot to this and computethe relative likelihood function (which amounts to a simple χ in this one parametermodel) to determine if the spot is detectable. We normalize such that for a givenspot a null detection is A = 0 (i.e. consistent with Gaussian fluctuations) and a per-fect detection is A = 1. As a sample we look at the projected sensitivities for threeexperiments: a current satellite mission (Planck [4]), a planned balloon mission (SPI-DER [22]) and a future satellite mission (CMBPol (EPIC-2m) [23]). We use the samepredicted sensitivies, beam-widths, weight per solid angle ( w ), and observing time as[24]. For brevity we analyze just these three, but any experiment which measures thetemperature and/or polarization over a significant fraction of the sky—such as CLASS,EBEX [25], PIXIE [26], ACTPol [27], and SPTpol [28]—has the potential to detect acosmic wake.Since we are fitting for the a lm themselves rather than the power spectra C l , a cutsky introduces straightforward but bothersome complications (the spherical harmonicsare no longer orthonormal). To get a simple idealized estimate we use a full sky foreach. For the satellite experiments this amounts to ignoring foreground effects in ourestimates. For partial sky-coverage balloon missions we are assuming that the Gaussianfluctuations will be similar in the region of the sky not measured. A full treatment ofthese effects would likely decrease the quoted sensitivities by a modest factor.For each experiment we do a combined analysis across all bands. Table 1 sum-marizes these numbers (we have assumed the sensitivity to Stokes I is √ Q and U ). For each spot radius θ c and experiment we find the minimum | δT /T | at thecenter of the spot necessary such that a detection A = 1 is 3 σ away from zero. Thisrepresents a conservative estimate of the detectability threshold in temperature andE-mode polarization. We summarize our findings for temperature and polarization inFig. 7. For polarization we can also choose to use information from the cross-correlation,which increases the sensitivity by allowing us to eliminate the correlated part of thecontribution from Gaussian fluctuations. We compute a range of sensitivities using asmuch information from the cross-correlation as possible to none which is displayed inFig. 7(b) by the filled region for each experiment.We can make some general observations. For small spots ( θ c (cid:46) ◦ ), a spot with | δT /T | > × − is likely observable in temperature, but would have to be brighterthan ∼ × − to be observable in polarization. A preliminary search for bubblecollisions in the temperature map has been recently carried out [2, 29] using the WMAP-7 dataset. While the analysis detected several anomalous features, it rules out collisionswith | δT /T | > − . Thus, while the potential still exists to observe small spots in11 able 1 . Projected detector parameters Detector Band Center (GHz) FWHM (arcmin) w − E [10 − µK ]Planck 30 33 268344 24 275370 14 2764100 10 504143 7.1 279217 5.0 754353 5.0 6975SPIDER 100 58 84.4145 40 47.4225 26 395275 21 1170CMBPol (EPIC-2m) 30 26 31.2145 17 5.7970 11 1.48100 8 0.89150 5 0.83220 3.5 1.95340 2.3 39.46
20 40 60 80 Θ c (cid:200) ∆ T (cid:144) T (cid:200) x 10 (cid:45) (cid:72) a (cid:76)
20 40 60 80 Θ c (cid:200) ∆ T (cid:144) T (cid:200) x 10 (cid:45) (cid:72) b (cid:76) Figure 7 . 3 σ detectability thresholds for (a) temperature and (b) E-mode polarization. Ineach, Planck is red, SPIDER is blue and CMBPol is green. The thickness of the lines in (b)corresponds to using information from the cross-correlation to improve the measurement. the temperature map, correlating them with polarization signals is likely outside thecapabilities of current or near future experiments, at least at the 3 σ level. If we lowerour threshold for correlation it may still be possible to obtain some evidence for acollision in the polarization map, though not likely significant enough to exclude other12otential explanations.The situation is considerably more promising for larger spots. With θ c > ∼ ◦ muchfainter spots are detectable in polarization, and very large spots could be detectedalmost as easily in polarization as temperature. The reason for this is clear fromFig. 3. Larger, fainter spots have stronger Q (or E ) -mode polarization over a largerangular range and thus more easily can be seen over the Gaussian fluctuations anddetector noise. In addition, spots larger than approximately 12 ◦ have the distinctivedouble peak feature on smaller scales.This angular size dependence is particularly important because the size distributionof collision spots — dN ( θ c ) ∝ sin θ c dθ c — is a robust prediction of the theory [12]. Theanalysis of [2, 29] was restricted to spots with θ c < ∼ ◦ , which, according to thisdistribution, are much less common than larger spots. We have solved numerically for the real-space evolution of the cosmic wakes producedby collisions between bubble universes, and determined the distinctive temperature andpolarization patterns these cosmic wakes imprint upon the CMB. These patterns havea circular symmetry that reflects the near-planar symmetry of cosmic wakes, and thepolarization pattern can have a distinctive double-peak structure arising from propa-gation of acoustic waves in the primordial plasma. We have estimated the detectabilityof cosmic wakes for several current and future CMB experiments in both temperatureand polarization. Holding fixed the temperature anomaly at the center, increasing theradius of the spot makes it easier to detect with polarization, but harder using temper-ature. The detection of a cosmic wake would show our observable Universe is one partof a larger multiverse, support the idea of the string theory landscape, and constitutea groundbreaking discovery of the nature of the big bang.
Acknowledgements
We thank Guido D’Amico, Spencer Chang, Ben Freivogel, Roberto Gobbetti, GaryHinshaw, Lam Hui, Eugene Lim, Adam Moss, Jonathan Roberts, Ignacy Sawicki, Ro-man Scoccimarro, I-Sheng Yang, Matias Zaldarriaga, and James Zibin for discussions.MK and TSL especially thank UC Davis and the organizers of the workshop “Bubblesin the Sky” for warm hospitality and a stimulating meeting. KS thanks the Aspen Cen-ter for Physics and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, where parts of this workwere completed, for hospitality. The work of MK is supported by NSF CAREER grantPHY-0645435. The work of KS is supported in part by a NSERC of Canada Discovery13rant. The work of TSL is supported in part by Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council of Canada and the Institute of Particle Physics.
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