Angular Correlation of the CMB in the R_h=ct Universe
  The emergence of several unexpected large-scale features in the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) has pointed to possible new physics driving the
origin of density fluctuations in the early Universe and their evolution into
the large-scale structure we see today. In this paper, we focus our attention
on the possible absence of angular correlation in the CMB anisotropies at
angles larger than ~60 degrees, and consider whether this feature may be the
signature of fluctuations expected in the R_h=ct Universe. We calculate the CMB
angular correlation function for a fluctuation spectrum expected from growth in
a Universe whose dynamics is constrained by the equation-of-state p=-rho/3,
where p and rho are the total pressure and density, respectively. We find that,
though the disparity between the predictions of LCDM and the WMAP sky may be
due to cosmic variance, it may also be due to an absence of inflation. The
classic horizon problem does not exist in the R_h=ct Universe, so a period of
exponential growth was not necessary in this cosmology in order to account for
the general uniformity of the CMB (save for the aforementioned tiny
fluctuations of 1 part in 100,000 in the WMAP relic signal. We show that the
R_h=ct Universe without inflation can account for the apparent absence in CMB
angular correlation at angles > 60 degrees without invoking cosmic variance,
providing additional motivation for pursuing this cosmology as a viable
description of nature.
