A. Gangui, NON-GAUSSIAN EFFECTS IN THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND FROM INFLATION, Physical review. D. Particles and fields, 50(6), 1994, pp. 3684-3691
The presence of non-Gaussian features in the cosmic microwave backgrou
nd (CMB) radiation maps represents one of the most long-awaited clues
in the search for the actual structure of primordial radiation, still
needing confirmation. These features could shed some light on the nont
rivial task of distinguishing the real source of the primeval perturba
tions leading to large scale structure. One of the simplest non-Gaussi
an signals to search is the (dimensionless) skewness S. Explicit compu
tations for S are presented in the frame of physically motivated infla
tionary models (natural, intermediate, and polynomial potential inflat
ion) in the hope of finding values in agreement with estimated quantit
ies from large angle scale (e.g., COBE DMR) maps. In all the cases con
sidered the non-Gaussian effects turn out to lie below the level of th
eoretical uncertainty (cosmic variance). The possibility of unveiling
the signal for S with multiple-field models is also discussed.