Foreground study for measurements of the cosmic microwave background

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Project objective

Research objectives and content Measurements of the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are expected to allow the determination, to high precision, of the most important cosmological parameters. To achieve this, a high level of understanding of Galactic and extragalactic foreground sources at microwave frequencies is required. I propose to use CMB data taken at MRAO, Cambridge, on a range of angular scales to search for extragalactic sources of interest which also confuse studies of the primordial CMB. I also plan to incorporate X-ray datasets with high angular resolution, such as the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) and pointed X- ray observations for comparison. This work is connected with the analysis of galaxy clusters observed in the Sunyaev- Zeltdovich (SZ) effect at MRAO, to which I want to contribute. In particular I will focus on investigating the systematic errors affecting the determination of the Hubble constant by combining X-ray data with the SZ measurements and on identifying confusing effects for the measurement of the primordial CMB connected with X-ray emitting foregrounds. As part of my project I plan to further study the microwave decrements recently discovered by the MRAO group for which I have already proposed and analysed X-ray observations. In spite of extensive searches for counterparts at other wavelengths, the nature of these objects has not yet been revealed. Training content (objective, benefit and expected impact) This project would be a natural extension of work which was contained in my PhD thesis concerned with a search for correlations between COBE DMR and RASS towards smaller angular scales. It would substantially broaden my experience with CMB data analysis on all angular scales, especially those involving the cluster SZ effect. The analysis methodology and the results on foreground components I produce will be directly applicable to existing and planned CMB experiments. In particular I intend to orient my project towards studying the capability of the European Space Agency's CMB satellite PLANCK SURVEYOR. Links with industry / industrial relevance (22)

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Participants

• University of Cambridge · CambridgeCoordinatorUnited Kingdom

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