Ruth Pearson, Antony Lewis, Donough Regan
Squeezed primordial non-Gaussianity can strongly constrain early-universe
physics, but it can only be observed on the CMB after it has been
gravitationally lensed. We give a new simple non-perturbative prescription for
accurately calculating the effect of lensing on any squeezed primordial
bispectrum shape, and test it with simulations. We give the generalization to
polarization bispectra, and discuss the effect of lensing on the trispectrum.
We explain why neglecting the lensing smoothing effect does not significantly
bias estimators of local primordial non-Gaussianity, even though the change in
shape can be >~10%. We also show how tau_NL trispectrum estimators can be well
approximated by much simpler CMB temperature modulation estimators, and hence
that there is potentially a ~10-30% bias due to very large-scale lensing modes,
depending on the range of modulation scales included. Including dipole sky
modulations can halve the tau_NL error bar if kinematic effects can be
subtracted using known properties of the CMB temperature dipole. Lensing
effects on the g_NL trispectrum are small compared to the error bar. In
appendices we give the general result for lensing of any primordial bispectrum,
and show how any full-sky squeezed bispectrum can be decomposed into orthogonal
modes of distinct angular dependence.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.1010
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