We investigate if the hemispherical asymmetry in the CMB is produced from asymmetric excited initial condition. We show that in the limit where the deviations from the Bunch-Davies vacuum is large and the scale of new physics is maximally separated f
rom the inflationary Hubble parameter, the primordial power spectrum is modulated only by position dependent dipole and quadrupole terms. Requiring the dipole contribution in the power spectrum to account for the observed power asymmetry, $A=0.07pm0.022$, we show that the amount of quadrupole terms is roughly equal to $A^2$. The {it mean} local bispectrum, which gets enhanced for the excited initial state, is within the $1sigma$ bound of Planck 2015 results for a large field model, $f_{rm NL}simeq 4.17$, but is reachable by future CMB experiments. The amplitude of the local non-gaussianity modulates around this mean value, depending on the angle that the correlated patches on the 2d CMB surface make with the preferred direction. The amount of variation minimizes for the configuration in which the short and long wavelengths modes are around the preferred pole and $|vec k_3|approx |vec k_{lapprox10}|ll |vec k_1|approx |vec k_2|approx |vec k_{lapprox2500}|$ with $f_{rm NL}^{rm min}approx 3.64 $. The maximum occurs when these modes are at the antipode of the preferred pole, $f_{rm NL}^{rm max}approx 4.81$ . The difference of non-gaussianity between these two configurations is as large as $simeq 1.17$ which can be used to distinguish this scenario from other scenarios that try to explain the observed hemispherical asymmetry.
How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the p
hysics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.
