Clustering of Hotspots in the Cosmic Microwave Background
  The physics behind the origin and composition of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (CMB) is a well-established topic in the field of Cosmology.
Literature on CMB anisotropies reveal consistency with Gaussianity, but these
were conducted on full multi-frequency temperature maps. In this thesis, we
utilise clustering algorithms to specifically conduct statistical analyses on
the distribution of hotspots in the CMB. We describe a series of data
processing and clustering methodologies conducted, with results that
conclusively show that the counts-in-cells distribution of hotspots in the CMB
does not follow a Poisson distribution. Rather, the distribution exhibits a
much closer fit to both the Negative Binomial Distribution (NBD) and the
Gravitational Quasi-Equilibrium Distribution (GQED). From this result, we
conclude that structure likely existed in the early universe, from the period
of the recombination Epoch, possibly opening new insights in the field of
galaxy formation.
