The Doppler peaks from a generic defect

Abstract

We investigate which of the exotic Doppler peak features found for textures and cosmic strings are generic novelties pertaining to defects. We find that the ``out of phase'' texture signature is an accident. Generic defects, when they generate a secondary peak structure similar to inflation, apply to it an additive shift. It is not necessary for this shift to be ``out of phase''. We also show which factors are responsible for the absence of secondary oscillations found for cosmic strings. Within this general analysis we finally consider the conditions under which topological defects and inflation can be confused. It is argued that only $Ω=1$ inflation and a defect with a horizon size coherence length have a chance to be confused. Any other inflationary or defect model always differ distinctly. (To appear in the proceedings of the XXXIth Moriond meeting, ``Microwave Background Anisotropies'')