Cosmic microwave background anisotropies at second order: I

We present the computation of the full system of Boltzmann equations at second order describing the evolution of the photon, baryon and cold dark matter fluids. These equations allow one to follow the time evolution of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies at second order at all angular scales from the early epoch, when the cosmological perturbations were generated, to the present, through the recombination era. This paper sets the stage for the computation of the full second-order radiation transfer function at all scales and for a generic set of initial conditions specifying the level of primordial non-Gaussianity. In a companion paper, we will present the computation of the three-point correlation function at recombination which is very relevant for the issue of non-Gaussianity in the cosmic microwave background anisotropies.