Canny Algorithm, Cosmic Strings and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Understand

We describe a new code to search for signatures of cosmic strings in cosmic microwave anisotropy maps.

• The code implements the Canny Algorithm, an edge detection algorithm designed to search for the lines of large gradients in maps.
• Such a gradient signature which is coherent in position space is produced by cosmic strings via the Kaiser-Stebbins effect.
• We test the power of our new code to set limits on the tension of the cosmic strings by analyzing simulated data with and without cosmic strings.