Detection of Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy by the Third Flight of MSAM

• Main Authors: Cheng, E. S, Cottingham, D. A, Fixsen, D. J, Goldin, A. B, Inman, C. A, Knox, L, Kowitt, M. S, Meyer, S. S, Puchalla, J. L, Ruhl, J. E, Silverberg, R. F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 07-05-1997
• Subjects: Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9705041

The third flight of the Medium Scale Anisotropy Measurement (MSAM1), in June
1995, observed a new strip of sky, doubling the sky coverage of the original
MSAM1 dataset. MSAM1 observes with a 0.5 deg beam size in four bands from 5-20
icm. From these four bands we derive measurements of cosmic microwave
background radiation (CMBR) anisotropy and interstellar dust emission. Our
measurement of dust emission correlates well with the 100 um IRAS Sky Survey
Atlas; from this comparison we determine an effective emissivity spectral index
between 100 um and 444 um of 1.46 +/- 0.28. Analysis of our measurement of CMBR
anisotropy shows that for Gaussian-shaped correlation functions with theta_c =
0.3 deg, we place a limit on total rms anisotropy of 2.2 x 10^{-5} < Delta T/T
< 3.9 x 10^{-5} (90% confidence interval, including calibration error). The
band-power limits are <delta T> = <l (l+1)C_l/2 pi>^{1/2} = 50^{+16}_{-11} uK
at l = 160, and <delta T> = 65^{+18}_{-13} uK at l = 270 (1 sigma limits,
including calibration error). The corresponding limits with statistical errors
only are <delta T> = 50^{+13}_{-9} uK and <delta T> = 65^{+14}_{-10} uK
respectively. These measurements are consistent with a standard adiabatic cold
dark matter model; we discuss constraints on h, n, and the redshift of
reionization.