English

How to avoid X'es around point sources in maximum likelihood CMB maps

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2020-01-08 v3 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

The maximum likelihood estimator for CMB map-making is optimal and unbiased as long as the data model is correct, but in practice it rarely is, with model errors including sub-pixel structure and instrumental problems like time-variable gain and pointing errors. In the presence of such errors, the solution is biased, with the local error in each pixel leaking outwards along the scanning pattern by a noise correlation length. The most important sources of such leakage are strong point sources, and for common scanning patterns the leakage manifests as an X around each such source. I discuss why this happens, and present several old and new methods for mitigating and/or eliminating this leakage, along with a small stand-alone TOD simulator and map-maker in Python that implements them.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1906.08030,
  title  = {How to avoid X'es around point sources in maximum likelihood CMB maps},
  author = {Sigurd K. Naess},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.08030},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

16 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in JCAP

R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:57:52.618Z