Quantum bounce as the origin of the anomalies in the CMB

Observations from the WMAP and Planck satellites have revealed certain features in the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background that are in tension with the standard model of cosmology. These signals appear only at large angular scales, and are known as `large scale anomalies’. The statistical significance of each of them is low, and range between 2.5 and 3 standard deviations. But, as pointed out by the Planck Collaboration, their collective significance may be large, and could point towards new physics. However, the peculiar details of these anomalies have challenged the imagination of theorists during the last few years. I will argue in this talk that the observed features could be relics from a cosmic bounce that took place before inflation, and hence they carry information about the physics that replaces the big bang singularity.