679 research outputs found
Point-Source Power in 3 Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Data
Using a set of multifrequency cross spectra computed from the 3 year WMAP sky maps, we fit for the unresolved point-source contribution. For a white-noise power spectrum, we find a Q-band amplitude of A = 0.011 ± 0.001 ÎŒK^2 sr (antenna temperature), significantly smaller than the value of 0.017 ± 0.002 ÎŒK^2 sr used to correct the spectra in the WMAP release. Modifying the point-source correction in this way largely resolves the discrepancy that Eriksen et al. found between the WMAP V- and W-band power spectra. Correcting the co-added WMAP spectrum for both the low-l power excess due to a suboptimal likelihood approximationâalso reported by Eriksen et al.âand the high-l power deficit due to oversubtracted point sourcesâpresented in this Letterâwe find that the net effect in terms of cosmological parameters is an ~0.7 Ï shift in n_s to larger values. For the combination of WMAP, BOOMERANG, and ACBAR data, we find ns = 0.969 ± 0.016, lowering the significance of n_s â 1 from ~2.7 Ï to ~2.0 Ï
Fast and Exact Spin-s Spherical Harmonic Transforms
We demonstrate a fast spin-s spherical harmonic transform algorithm, which is
flexible and exact for band-limited functions. In contrast to previous work,
where spin transforms are computed independently, our algorithm permits the
computation of several distinct spin transforms simultaneously. Specifically,
only one set of special functions is computed for transforms of quantities with
any spin, namely the Wigner d-matrices evaluated at {\pi}/2, which may be
computed with efficient recursions. For any spin the computation scales as
O(L^3) where L is the band-limit of the function. Our publicly available
numerical implementation permits very high accuracy at modest computational
cost. We discuss applications to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and
gravitational lensing.Comment: 22 pages, preprint format, 5 figure
Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in WMAP and its effect on cosmological parameters
We use multi-frequency information in first year WMAP data to search for the
Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect. WMAP has sufficiently broad frequency coverage
to constrain SZ without the addition of higher frequency data: the SZ power
spectrum amplitude is expected to increase 50% from W to Q frequency band.
This, in combination with the low noise in WMAP, allows us to strongly
constrain the SZ contribution. We derive an optimal frequency combination of
WMAP cross-spectra to extract SZ in the presence of noise, CMB, and radio point
sources, which are marginalized over. We find that the SZ contribution is less
than 2% (95% c.l.) at the first acoustic peak in W band. Under the assumption
that the removed radio point sources are not correlated with SZ this limit
implies sigma_8<1.07 at 95% c.l. We investigate the effect on the cosmological
parameters of allowing an SZ component. We run Monte Carlo Markov Chains with
and without an SZ component and find that the addition of SZ does not affect
any of the cosmological conclusions. We conclude that SZ does not contaminate
the WMAP CMB or change cosmological parameters, refuting the recent claims that
they may be corrupted.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Measuring Planck beams with planets
Aims. Accurate measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy requires precise knowledge of the instrument beam. We explore how well the Planckâbeams will be determined from observations of planets, developing techniques that are also appropriate for other experiments.
Methods. We simulate planet observations with a Planck-like scanning strategy, telescope beams, noise, and detector properties. Then we employ both parametric and non-parametric techniques, reconstructing beams directly from the time-ordered data. With a faithful parameterization of the beam shape, we can constrain certain detector properties, such as the time constants of the detectors, to high precision. Alternatively, we decompose the beam using an orthogonal basis. For both techniques, we characterize the errors in the beam reconstruction with Monte Carlo realizations. For a simplified scanning strategy, we study the impact on estimation of the CMB power spectrum. Finally, we explore the consequences for measuring cosmological parameters, focusing on the spectral index of primordial scalar perturbations, n_s.
Results. The quality of the power spectrum measurement will be significantly influenced by the optical modeling of the telescope. In our most conservative case, using no information about the optics except the measurement of planets, we find that a single transit of Jupiter across the focal plane will measure the beam window functions to better than 0.3% for the channels at 100â217 GHz that are the most sensitive to the CMB. Constraining the beam with optical modeling can lead to much higher quality reconstruction.
Conclusions. Depending on the optical modeling, the beam errors may be a significant contribution to the measurement systematics for n_s
Libpsht - algorithms for efficient spherical harmonic transforms
Libpsht (or "library for Performant Spherical Harmonic Transforms") is a
collection of algorithms for efficient conversion between spatial-domain and
spectral-domain representations of data defined on the sphere. The package
supports transforms of scalars as well as spin-1 and spin-2 quantities, and can
be used for a wide range of pixelisations (including HEALPix, GLESP and ECP).
It will take advantage of hardware features like multiple processor cores and
floating-point vector operations, if available. Even without this additional
acceleration, the employed algorithms are among the most efficient (in terms of
CPU time as well as memory consumption) currently being used in the
astronomical community.
The library is written in strictly standard-conforming C90, ensuring
portability to many different hard- and software platforms, and allowing
straightforward integration with codes written in various programming languages
like C, C++, Fortran, Python etc.
Libpsht is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(GPL) version 2 and can be downloaded from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libpsht.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&
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