A method to search for topological signatures in the angular distribution of cosmic objects

Abstract

We present a method to search for large angular-scale correlations, termed topological signatures, in the angular distribution of cosmic objects, which does not depend on cosmological models or parameters and is based only on the angular coordinates of the objects. In order to explore Cosmic Microwave Background temperature fluctuations data, we applied this method to simulated distributions of objects in thin spherical shells located in three different multiply-connected Euclidean 3-spaces ($T^3$, $T_{\pi}$, and $G_6$), and found that the topological signatures due to these topologies can be revealed even if their intensities are small. We show how to detect such signatures for the cases of full-sky and partial-sky distributions of objects. This method can also be applied to other ensembles of cosmic objects, like galaxies or quasars, in order to reveal possible angular-scale correlations in their distributions.