Signal-to-Noise Eigenmode Analysis of the Two-Year COBE Maps

dc.creatorBond, J. Richard
dc.date1994-07-14
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T12:33:03Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T12:33:03Z
dc.descriptionTo test a theory of cosmic microwave background fluctuations, it is natural to expand an anisotropy map in an uncorrelated basis of linear combinations of pixel amplitudes --- statistically-independent for both the noise and the signal. These $S/N$-eigenmodes are indispensible for rapid Bayesian analyses of anisotropy experiments, applied here to the recently-released two-year COBE {\it dmr} maps and the {\it firs} map. A 2-parameter model with an overall band-power and a spectral tilt $ν_{ΔT}$ describes well inflation-based theories. The band-powers for {\it all} the {\it dmr} $53,90,31$ $a$+$b$ GHz and {\it firs} 170 GHz maps agree, $\{(1.1\pm 0.1)\times 10^{-5}\}^{1/2}$, and are largely independent of tilt and degree of (sharp) $S/N$-filtering. Further, after optimal $S/N$-filtering, the {\it dmr} maps reveal the same tilt-independent large scale features and correlation function. The unfiltered {\it dmr} $53$ $a$+$b$ index $ν_{ΔT}+1$ is $1.4\pm 0.4$; increasing the $S/N$-filtering gives a broad region at (1.0--1.2)$\pm$0.5, a jump to (1.4--1.6)$\pm$0.5, then a drop to 0.8, the higher values clearly seen to be driven by $S/N$-power spectrum data points that do not fit single-tilt models. These indices are nicely compatible with inflation values ($\sim$0.8--1.2), but not overwhelmingly so.
dc.descriptionsubmitted to Phys.Rev.Letters, 4 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript; also bdmr2.ps.Z, via anonymous ftp to ftp.cita.utoronto.ca, cd to /pub/dick/yukawa; CITA-94-27
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9407044
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9407044
dc.identifierPhys.Rev.Lett.74:4369-4372,1995
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.4369
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/216992
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.titleSignal-to-Noise Eigenmode Analysis of the Two-Year COBE Maps
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