Wavelet-Bayesian inference of cosmic strings embedded in the cosmic microwave background

Understand

Cosmic strings are a well-motivated extension to the standard cosmological model and could induce a subdominant component in the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), in addition to the standard inflationary component.

• The detection of strings, while observationally challenging, would provide a direct probe of physics at very high energy scales.
• We develop a new framework for cosmic string inference, constructing a Bayesian analysis in wavelet space where the string-induced CMB component has distinct statistical properties to the standard inflationary component.
• Our wavelet-Bayesian framework provides a principled approach to compute the posterior distribution of the string tension $G\mu$ and the Bayesian evidence ratio comparing the string model to the standard inflationary model.