Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1998-08-24
Astrophys.J. 533 (2000) 19
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
27 Pages, 11 Figures, AASTeX; final version to be published in ApJ
Scientific paper
10.1086/308625
Powerful constraints on theories can already be inferred from existing CMB anisotropy data. But performing an exact analysis of available data is a complicated task and may become prohibitively so for upcoming experiments with \gtrsim10^4 pixels. We present a method for approximating the likelihood that takes power spectrum constraints, e.g., ``band-powers'', as inputs. We identify a bias which results if one approximates the probability distribution of the band-power errors as Gaussian---as is the usual practice. This bias can be eliminated by using specific approximations to the non-Gaussian form for the distribution specified by three parameters (the maximum likelihood or mode, curvature or variance, and a third quantity). We advocate the calculation of this third quantity by experimenters, to be presented along with the maximum-likelihood band-power and variance. We use this non-Gaussian form to estimate the power spectrum of the CMB in eleven bands from multipole moment ell = 2 (the quadrupole) to ell=3000 from all published band-power data. We investigate the robustness of our power spectrum estimate to changes in these approximations as well as to selective editing of the data.
Bond Richard J.
Jaffe Andrew H.
Knox Lloyd Edward
No associations
LandOfFree
Radical Compression of Cosmic Microwave Background Data does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Radical Compression of Cosmic Microwave Background Data, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Radical Compression of Cosmic Microwave Background Data will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-530917