Related papers: The Parameter-Level Performance of Covariance Matr…
The quadrupole power of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies seen in the WMAP data is puzzlingly low. In this paper we demonstrate that Minimum Variance Optimization (MVO), a technique used by many authors (including…
The inverse covariance matrix provides considerable insight for understanding statistical models in the multivariate setting. In particular, when the distribution over variables is assumed to be multivariate normal, the sparsity pattern in…
We use a high-accuracy computational code to investigate the precision with which cosmological parameters could be reconstructed by future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, in particular the two satellite missions MAP and…
Computing the inverse covariance matrix (or precision matrix) of large data vectors is crucial in weak lensing (and multi-probe) analyses of the large scale structure of the universe. Analytically computed covariances are noise-free and…
Cosmological covariance matrices are fundamental for parameter inference, since they are responsible for propagating uncertainties from the data down to the model parameters. However, when data vectors are large, in order to estimate…
Precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy have been one of the foremost concerns in modern cosmology as it provides valuable information on the cosmology of the universe. However, an accurate estimation of the…
New physics in the early Universe could lead to parity-violation in the late Universe, sourcing statistics whose sign changes under point reflection. The best constraints on such phenomena have come from the Planck temperature fluctuations;…
We develop two methods for estimating the power spectrum, C_l, of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from data and apply them to the COBE/DMR and Saskatoon datasets. One method involves a direct evaluation of the likelihood function, and…
We describe our methodology for comparing the WMAP measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and other complementary data sets to theoretical models. The unprecedented quality of the WMAP data, and the tight constraints on…
In this work we present an extension of the ROMA map-making code for data analysis of Cosmic Microwave Background polarization, with particular attention given to the inflationary polarization B-modes. The new algorithm takes into account a…
We describe an approximate statistical model for the sample variance distribution of the non-linear matter power spectrum that can be calibrated from limited numbers of simulations. Our model retains the common assumption of a multivariate…
We evaluate the covariance matrix of the matter power spectrum using perturbation theory up to dominant terms at 1-loop order and compare it to numerical simulations. We decompose the covariance matrix into the disconnected (Gaussian) part,…
I develop a method for assessing the ability of an instrument, coupled with an observing strategy, to measure the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It allows for efficient calculation of expected parameter…
We present a formalism for performance forecasting and optimization of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We implement it in the context of nearly full sky, multifrequency, B-mode polarization observations, incorporating…
Polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) can help probe cosmic inflation (via primordial $B$ modes) and test parity-violating physics (via cosmic birefringence), but realizing the potential of these opportunities requires…
We extend a general maximum likelihood foreground estimation for cosmic microwave background polarization data to include estimation of instrumental systematic effects. We focus on two particular effects: frequency band measurement…
Estimation of the sky signal from sequences of time ordered data is one of the key steps in Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data analysis, commonly referred to as the map-making problem. Some of the most popular and general methods…
We present a detailed analysis of present and future Cosmic Microwave Background constraints of the value of the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$. We carry out a more detailed analysis of the WMAP first-year data, deriving state-of-the-art…
Cosmological parameter estimation requires that the likelihood function of the data is accurately known. Assuming that cosmological large-scale structure power spectra data are multivariate Gaussian-distributed, we show the accuracy of…
We have developed a fast, accurate and generally applicable method for inferring the power spectrum and its uncertainties from maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in the presence of inhomogeneous and correlated noise. For maps…