Primordial non-Gaussianity and CMB statistical anisotropies
Bartolo, Nicola (Physics Department ``G. Galilei'', University of Padova, Italy)

Motivated by some CMB observational hints of statistical isotropy breaking and recent theoretical developments of primordial (inflationary) vector field models, we will discuss how to extract statistical anisotropy information from the three-point correlation function of CMB anisotropies. Such anisotropic features can be imprinted by a primordial non-Gaussianity whose amplitude is modulated by some preferred spatial directions. We will show how present and future CMB experiments could be sensitive to such signatures at a level of a few percent. Our results are complementary to power spectrum analyses, and particularly relevant for those models where statistical anisotropy turns out to be suppressed in the power spectrum but is not negligible in the CMB bispectrum.