A medium-scale measurement of the cosmic microwave background at 3. 3 millimeters

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Astrophysical Journal; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/185965· OSTI ID:5912184

Meinhold, P; Lubin, P ^[1]

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1. California Univ., Santa Barbara (USA)

A system has been developed for making measurements of spatial fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation, on an angular scale of 5 arcmin to a few degrees. The system consists of an off-axis Gregorian telescope with a nearly Gaussian response with FWHM adjustable from 20 to 50 arcmin, an SIS coherent receiver operating at 3.3 mm, and a pointing system capable of better than 1 arcmin rms stabilization. This paper reports on results from the system's first balloon flight in August 1988, and ground-based measurements made from the South Pole in December 1988. A portion of the South Pole data is used to place a 95-percent confidence level upper limit of Delta T/T less than 0.000035 for Gaussian sky fluctuations in the background radiation at 20-arcmin angular scale and a limit of Delta T/T less than 0.000033 on overall excess intrinsic sky noise. In addition, dust contamination in cosmic background radiation data is estimated using measurements of the Galaxy from this flight and a previous one, along with the IRAS 100-micron map. These anisotropy results give the most stringent limits on cold dark matter theories to date. 11 refs.

• OSTI ID: 5912184
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal; (USA), Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal; (USA) Vol. 370; ISSN ASJOA; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
COSMIC DUST
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
DATA
DISTRIBUTION
DUSTS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION SPECTRA
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
RADIATIONS
RELICT RADIATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SPECTRA