arXiv subjects

M. C. Shepherd

Publications and source records attributed to M. C. Shepherd.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

DASI First Results: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Angular Power Spectrum

We present measurements of anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the first season of observations with the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI). The instrument was deployed at the South Pole in the austral summer 1999--2000, and made observations throughout the following austral winter. We have measured the angular power spectrum of the CMB in the range 100<l<900 with high signal-to-noise. In this paper we review the formalism used in the analysis, in particular the use of constraint matrices to project out contaminants such as ground and point source signals, and to test for correlations with diffuse foreground templates. We find no evidence of foregrounds other than point sources in the data, and find a maximum likelihood temperature spectral index beta = -0.1 +/- 0.2 (1 sigma), consistent with CMB. We detect a first peak in the power spectrum at l approx 200, in agreement with previous experiments. In addition, we detect a peak in the power spectrum at l approx 550 and power of similar magnitude at l approx 800 which are consistent with the second and third harmonic peaks predicted by adiabatic inflationary cosmological models.

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arXiv2002

A Fast Gridded Method for the Estimation of the Power Spectrum of the CMB from Interferometer Data with Application to the Cosmic Background Imager

We describe an algorithm for the extraction of the angular power spectrum of an intensity field, such as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), from interferometer data. This new method, based on the gridding of interferometer visibilities in the aperture plane followed by a maximum likelihood solution for bandpowers, is much faster than direct likelihood analysis of the visibilities, and deals with foreground radio sources, multiple pointings, and differencing. The gridded aperture-plane estimators are also used to construct Wiener-filtered images using the signal and noise covariance matrices used in the likelihood analysis. Results are shown for simulated data. The method has been used to determine the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background from observations with the Cosmic Background Imager, and the results are given in companion papers.

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arXiv2001

The Cosmic Background Imager

Design and performance details are given for the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI), an interferometer array that is measuring the power spectrum of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) for multipoles in the range 400 < l < 3500. The CBI is located at an altitude of 5000 m in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is a planar synthesis array with 13 0.9-m diameter antennas on a 6-m diameter tracking platform. Each antenna has a cooled, low-noise receiver operating in the 26-36 GHz band. Signals are cross-correlated in an analog filterbank correlator with ten 1 GHz bands. This allows spectral index measurements which can be used to distinguish CMBR signals from diffuse galactic foregrounds. A 1.2 kHz 180-deg phase switching scheme is used to reject cross-talk and low-frequency pick-up in the signal processing system. The CBI has a 3-axis mount which allows the tracking platform to be rotated about the optical axis, providing improved (u,v) coverage and a powerful discriminant against false signals generated in the receiving electronics. Rotating the tracking platform also permits polarization measurements when some of the antennas are configured for the orthogonal polarization.

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arXiv2001

First Intrinsic Anisotropy Observations with the Cosmic Background Imager

We present the first results of observations of the intrinsic anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation with the Cosmic Background Imager from a site at 5080 m altitude in northern Chile. Our observations show a sharp decrease in C_l in the range l=400 - 1500. The broadband amplitudes we have measured are deltaT(band) = 58.7 (-6.3, +7.7) microK for l = 603 (-166, +180) and 29.7 (-4.2, +4.8) microK for l = 1190 (-224, +261), where these are half-power widths in l. Such a decrease in power at high l is one of the fundamental predictions of the standard cosmological model, and these are the first observations which cover a broad enough l range to show this decrease in a single experiment. The C_l we have measured enable us to place limits on the density parameter, Omega(tot) <= 0.4 or $Omega(tot) >= 0.7 (90% confidence).

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arXiv2000

The Cosmic Background Imager

The Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) is an instrument designed to make images of the cosmic microwave background radiation and to measure its statistical properties on angular scales from about 3 arc minutes to one degree (spherical harmonic scales from l ~ 4250 down to l ~ 400). The CBI is a 13-element interferometer mounted on a 6 meter platform operating in ten 1-GHz frequency bands from 26 GHz to 36 GHz. The instantaneous field of view of the instrument is 45 arcmin (FWHM) and its resolution ranges from 3 to 10 arcmin; larger fields can be imaged by mosaicing. At this frequency and resolution, the primary foreground is due to discrete extragalactic sources, which are monitored at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and subtracted from the CBI visibility measurements. The instrument has been making observations since late 1999 of both primordial CMB fluctuations and the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in clusters of galaxies from its site at an altitude of 5080 meters near San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile. Observations will continue until August 2001 or later. We present preliminary results from the first few months of observations.

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