The Axis of Evil revisited
Abstract
In light of the three-year data release from WMAP we re-examine the evidence for the ``Axis of Evil''. We discover that previous frequentist methods are not robust with respect to the data-sets available and different treatments of the galactic plane. We identify the cause of the instability and show that this result is not a weakness of the data. This is further confirmed by exhibiting an alternative approach, Bayesian in flavour, and based on a likelihood method and the information criteria. We find strong (and sometimes decisive) evidence for the ``Axis of Evil'' in almost all renditions of the WMAP data. However some significant differences between data-sets remain, and the quantitative aspects of the result depend on the particular information criteria used.Keywords
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