Cosmic topology. Part Va. Information content of the observable Universe

Abstract

If the Universe possesses a compact spatial topology with characteristic scale not much larger than the diameter of the observable Universe, then the associated symmetry transformations imprint specific statistical correlations on density perturbations. We derive the covariance between perturbation modes in the full topology volume and compute the induced covariance between modes in the observable subvolume. We then use this covariance to estimate the available information about topology contained in the full set of observable linear perturbations. For two sample Euclidean examples - the cubic three-torus ($E_1$) and a three-torus with a quarter turn ($E_3$) - the three-dimensional density field carries enough information to detect topology on scales up to 25 percent larger than those accessible from the two-dimensional cosmic microwave background anisotropies alone. Future probes of the cosmic density field using deep galaxy surveys or neutral-hydrogen 21-cm intensity mapping, combined with computationally intensive searches over the large parameter space of admissible topologies, thus offer a plausible avenue to extending the range of detectable cosmic topologies.