New method of extracting non-Gaussian signals in the CMB

Abstract

Searching for and charactering the non-Gaussianity (NG) of a given field has been a vital task in many fields of science, because we expect the consequences of different physical processes to carry different statistical properties. Here we propose a new general method of extracting non-Gaussian features in a given field, and then use simulated cosmic microwave background (CMB) as an example to demonstrate its power. In particular, we show its capability of detecting cosmic strings.