Spectator stresses and CMB observables

The large-scale curvature perturbations induced by spectator anisotropic stresses are analyzed across the matter-radiation transition. It is assumed that the anisotropic stress is associated with a plasma component whose energy density is subdominant both today and prior to photon decoupling. The enforcement of the momentum constraint and the interplay with the neutrino anisotropic stress determine the regular initial conditions of the Einstein-Boltzmann hierarchy. The cosmic microwave background observables have shapes and phases which differ both from the ones of the conventional adiabatic mode as well as from their nonadiabatic counterparts.