Degree Scale Anisotropy Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Large Scale Structure

Scientific paper

Humans have inquired about the origin, evolution, and content of the Universe for as long as history has been recorded. These paths of inquiry have only just recently evolved from the realm of philosophy and metaphysics into the very quantitative and predictive science of cosmology. This transition has been facilitated by the wealth of observational data in the last three decades. Although we have made large strides in our understanding of the Universe, there are many outstanding questions that have not been precisely answered. Some of these include, "How old is the Universe?", "What is the matter/energy content of the Universe?", Will the Universe continue to expand, or will it one day begin to collapse?", "How did the large scale structures (such as galaxies and clusters of galaxies) first form?". Over the past six years, detailed observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have begun to constrain cosmological models which address these very questions. In particular, measurements of the spatial distribution (anisotropy) of the CMB have been shown to be very powerful tests of theories that attempt to explain the origin, evolution, contents and geometry of the Universe. The subject of this thesis is the search and characterization of medium angular scale anisotropy in the CMB. The scientific motivation for observing CMB anisotropy is presented within a general introduction to our current understanding of the Universe. An overview of the technological and observational hurdles that make CMB anisotropy measurements difficult is given. The main body of the text describes two experimental efforts to measure CMB anisotropy on medium angular scales. The first of these efforts is the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX) which is a balloon-borne telescope that has been developed to measure CMB anisotropy. The second of these efforts involves ground-based observations of CMB anisotropy from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. Both of these efforts have made pioneering measurements in the search and discovery of CMB anisotropy on medium angular scales. Finally, a review of the current status of CMB anisotropy measurements is given, and some of the future experiments are described.

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