Research Note

Application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to CMB data: Is the universe really weakly random?

Institute of theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, PO Box 1029 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
e-mail: sigurdkn@astro.uio.no

Received: 25 May 2011
Accepted: 19 September 2011

Abstract

A recent application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to the WMAP 7 year W-band maps claims evidence that the CMB is “weakly random”, and that only 20% of the signal can be explained as a random Gaussian field. I here repeat this analysis, and in contrast to the original result find no evidence for deviation from the standard ΛCDM model. Instead, the results of the original analysis are consistent with not properly taking into account the correlations of the ΛCDM power spectrum.