Related papers: Concerning Parameter Estimation Using the Cosmic M…
The majority of present efforts to constrain cosmological parameters with cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data employ approximate likelihood functions, the time consuming nature of a complete analysis being a major obstacle. We…
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…
We discuss the problem of constraining cosmological parameters with cosmic microwave background band--power estimates. Because these latter are variances, they do not have gaussian distribution functions and, hence, the standard…
Band-power estimates of cosmic microwave background fluctuations are now routinely used to place constraints on cosmological parameters. For this to be done in a rigorous fashion, the full likelihood function of band-power estimates must be…
We discuss the constraints one can place on cosmological parameters using current cosmic microwave background data. A standard $\chi^2$--minimization over band--power estimates is first presented, followed by a discussion of the more…
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…
A maximum-likelihood method is presented for estimating the power spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from interferometer observations. The method calculates flat band-power estimates in separate bins in…
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…
Accurate parameter estimation from cosmic microwave background data requires reliable likelihood modeling, particularly at large angular scales where angular power spectrum estimators exhibit non-Gaussian statistics. We present a novel…
We propose a formalism for estimating the skewness and angular power spectrum of a general Cosmic Microwave Background data set. We use the Edgeworth Expansion to define a non-Gaussian likelihood function that takes into account the…
The primary results of most observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy are estimates of the angular power spectrum averaged through some broad band, called band-powers. These estimates are in turn what are used to produce…
We use weighted mean and median statistics techniques to combine individual cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy detections and determine binned, multipole-space, CMB anisotropy power spectra. The resultant power spectra are peaked.…
It is widely believed that maximum likelihood estimators must be used to provide optimal estimates of power spectra. Since such estimators require require of order N_d^3 operations they are computationally prohibitive for N_d greater than a…
We present a simple, yet accurate approximation for calculating the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectrum in adiabatic models. It consists of solving for the evolution of a two-fluid model until the epoch of recombination…
Using an approximate likelihood method adapted to band--power estimates, we analyze the ensemble of first generation cosmic microwave background anisotropy experiments to deduce constraints over a six--dimensional parameter space describing…
Microwave background temperature and polarization observations are a powerful way to constrain cosmological parameters if the likelihood function can be calculated accurately. The temperature and polarization fields are correlated, partial…
Application of a Goodness--of--fit (GOF) statistic is an essential element of parameter estimation. We discuss the computation of GOF when estimating parameters from anisotropy measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and we…
We use quadratic maximum-likelihood (QML) estimators to constrain models with Gaussian but statistically anisotropic Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) fluctuations, using CMB maps with realistic sky-coverage and instrumental noise. This…
As the era of high precision cosmology approaches, the empirically determined power spectrum of the microwave background anisotropy $C_l$ will provide a crucial test for cosmological theories. We present an exact semi-analytic framework for…
We discuss an approach to the component separation of microwave, multi-frequency sky maps as those typically produced from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropy data sets. The algorithm is based on the two step, parametric,…