Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI
Published on: February 3, 2015
Imprints of spherical nontrivial topologies on the cosmic microwave background
Anastasia Niarchou1, Andrew Jaffe
1Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, UK.
Abstract:
The apparent low power in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy power spectrum derived from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe motivated us to consider the possibility of a nontrivial topology. We focus on simple spherical multiconnected manifolds and discuss their implications for the CMB in terms of the power spectrum, maps, and the correlation matrix. We perform a Bayesian model comparison against the fiducial best-fit cold dark matter model with a cosmological constant based both on the power spectrum and the correlation matrix to assess their statistical significance. We find that the first-year power spectrum shows a slight preference for the truncated cube space, but the three-year data show no evidence for any of these spaces.
Related Concept Videos
Space-Time Curvature and the General Theory of Relativity
This has been verified in many experiments. However, space and time are no longer absolute. Two observers moving relative to one another do not agree on the length of objects or the passage of time. The mechanics of objects based on Newton's laws of motion,...
Divergence and Curl of Magnetic Field
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Curvature and Its Interpretation
Gauss's Law: Spherical Symmetry
Rotation of Asymmetric Top
The relationship between the angular momentum of any rigid body and its angular velocity, both of which are vectors, involves the moment of inertia. The moment of inertia is a scalar quantity only for spherically symmetric...

