Cosmic microwave background anisotropy: deviations from Gaussianity caused by non-linear gravity

Non-linear evolution of cosmological energy density fluctuations triggers deviations from Gaussianity in the temperature distribution of the cosmic microwave background. A method to estimate these deviations is proposed. N-body simulations – in a Λ cold dark matter cosmology – are used to simulate the strongly non-linear evolution of cosmological structures. It is proved that these simulations can be combined with the potential approximation to calculate the statistical moments of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies produced by non-linear gravity. Some of these moments are computed and the resulting values are different from those corresponding to Gaussianity.