Authors
Licia Verde, HV Peiris, DN Spergel, MR Nolta, CL Bennett, M Halpern, G Hinshaw, N Jarosik, A Kogut, M Limon, SS Meyer, L Page, GS Tucker, E Wollack, EL Wright
Publication date
2003/9
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume
148
Issue
1
Pages
195
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Description
We describe our methodology for comparing the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (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 cosmological parameters that are derived require a rigorous analysis so that the approximations made in the modeling do not lead to significant biases. We describe our use of the likelihood function to characterize the statistical properties of the microwave background sky. We outline the use of the Monte Carlo Markov Chains to explore the likelihood of the data given a model to determine the best-fit cosmological parameters and their uncertainties. We add to the WMAP data the ℓ≳ 700 Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) and Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver (ACBAR) measurements of the CMB, the galaxy power …
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L Verde, HV Peiris, DN Spergel, MR Nolta, CL Bennett… - The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 2003